Red Hood meets Marvel
by Addie Lover of Stories
Summary: Red Hood finds himself in the MU, & while he waits for his universe to find him, he decides to protect the city he finds himself in his own special way. Meanwhile the Avengers get reports that Red Skull has set up shop in their city, and so the Avengers & Shield get involved. Coincidence? I think not. (I don't own anything but the plot, and the cover art isn't mine either.)
1. Chapter 1: Before the Start

A/N: Edited December 28, 2018

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Chapter 1

Jason was not having a good day. He had just gotten back from an Outlaw mission with Roy and Kori that had taken them much, much longer than it should've. The mission had taken them off world, and what should've taken them a week on Kori's Tamaranian beauty of a ship, had ended up taking over a month and a half. Then, when Jason had finally gotten back to Gotham, it was to an all hands on deck Arkham breakout that left everyone exhausted. It had taken all week just to get things to settled down and most of the criminals back in jail. At this point Jason was just ready to fall into bed and sleep for 24 hours, regardless of the injuries he should really probably clean up. Sadly, as he crawled through the window into his apartment safehouse, he discovered that was not to be.

As he entered his kitchen the first thing he saw was his idiot brother perched on his kitchen counter still in his Nightwing attire, sans mask, munching on Jason's wheat-ees, swinging his legs back in forth like the six year old Jason swore he was. Honestly, at this point Jason should probably just be expecting this, but give him a break. It'd been a long... Well at this point, let's just go with few years. It'd been a long few years.

"What do you want now?" Jason sighed, slouching against the kitchen door frame.

"What, I can't simply visit my little brother? Maybe I don't want anything! Ever considered that?" Dick said, gesturing wildly with both hands, one still hold the box he'd been eating straight out of, and sending bits of cereal flying. Jason narrowed his eyes at him. If he had to clean that shit up, Dick would be paying for it.

"You always want something. The last time you were here you were trying to bribe me to babysit the demon brat, and before that it was 'why don't you hangout with Tim? You should be nicer!' and before that it was trying to get me to meet with Steph, and before that… Well, need I go on? Really, Dickhead, you're too predictable." Dick took a moment to think about that, playing weighing the thought tilting his head back and forth, before just shrugging.

"Okay, so maybe you have a point," Dick paused to shove another handful on cereal in his mouth and chew for a moment, contemplating, "But I haven't seen you in like, two months! I mean, you could've at least called once in a while. That's totally explanation enough for me being here!"

Jason sighed again, but didn't argue, DIck wasn't wrong. Their relationship had gotten a lot better over the years since Jason's resurrection. After Jason had recovered from the insanity induced by the Lazarus pit, and all the madness that that let to, he'd even say their relationship had improved to them actually being close. Sure they weren't best friends, or joined at the hip, or any of that shit, but it was to the point Jason didn't mind hanging out with his brother just to spend some time with the guy. So yes, not seeing each other in two months really was enough of an explanation for him being here. Still, Jason was way too tired to put up with any socialization today, especially someone with Dick's energy levels. He was waaay too hyper to deal with right now. Fellow zombies, he could deal with. He'd had a delightful conversation of half mumbled gibberish with Tim the other day before either of them had had their coffee when they were on day three of only two hours of sleep. Dick with his frankly unnatural levels of energy? No. Just, no.

"Just come back tomorrow, okay? I'm dead right now. Well, I mean, I've been dead for years now, but right now especially. Just, let's talk later." Dick narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips at Jason. He never did like Jason's death jokes. But finally he jumped off the counter, shoved another handful of cereal in his mouth before tossing the box back on the counter and crossed the room to Jason, planting his hands on his hips.

"Fine. But you're letting me bandage you up first, those cuts need cleaning or you're going to get them infected."

"Fine. First aid kit's in the cabinet by the fridge, bottom shelf." Jason said with another put upon sigh. He'd been that a lot lately, but what could he say? Dickhead just drew it out of him.

Dick found the medkit and was gently pushing Jason into a nearby chair in seconds, making short work of cleaning up the cuts with barely a hiss from Jason before he was bandaging them. They were all good at playing nurse. They'd done it enough times, and more often without help than with, that at this point any of them could've probably do it blindfolded and half asleep. But Jason was fully willing to admit it was nice not to have to pay any of it a bit of attention, and just doze while Dick took care of it. Did he mention how exhausted him was?

"Done. Now go get some rest. Patrol tomorrow?" Dick said, slapping Jason's shoulder good naturedly, and standing from were he'd been kneeling next to Jason to clean up his wounds.

"Deal. Now get outta here."

"You got it!" Dick laughed as he crawled out the window, flipping off the sill without even firing his grappling hook.

"Show off." Jason mumbled, already shuffling over to the window to close and lock it. Really, Jason was way too tired to deal with this shit.

After a quick shower, Jason fell into bed and was asleep in a blink of an eye, not giving his brother another thought.

~x~

Waking up was an exercise of wills. His whole body felt like it'd been in a stampede, muscles tinged, and his head throbbed, and really sleep was much, much more tempting. Still, he really did need to get up. For one, his stomach was growling loud enough to wake the neighbors so he should at least deal with that. So with a groan, he pulled himself up and got to work.

Jason pushed himself through getting dressed, making breakfast, and brushing his teeth moving like the zombie he was, sound effects included, (damn his body was sore). And so with his attention elsewhere, it was decidedly easy not to notice the one glaring difference in his appearance. Till of course, as he was doing his afternoon shopping the overly friendly cashier complimented him on his hair, and more specifically, it's color. Apparently bright fucking red with a hot pink stripe was 'a bold fashion choice' and he must be 'incredibly brave!'.

… Seriously, what the fuck. Red? Hot PINK?! WHAT?! When the hell did THAT happen?!

… It was Dick wasn't it? … Of course it was.

As soon as Jason made it home and had his groceries up, he called Dick. There was really no one else this could be, and Jason knew Dick had been in his apartment last night unsupervised for some length of time. Honestly he should have expected one type of prank or another.

"Like your new hair?" Dick picked up, laughing, on the second ring.

"You are an asshole."

Dick just laughed in reply.

"You better have a way to fix this, or I'm going to team up with Tim and get you back. You know he's been plotting your demise since you replaced all his coffee with decaf. If he doesn't have a plan already in place for his revenge I will be shocked, but with a little help from moi I'm sure we can make it ten times worse for you."

"Okay! Okay! Fine! Jeeze, Tim's already bad enough! You know he filled my whole apartment with legos the other day while I was asleep, right? I stepped on waaay too many of them, and i still don't think he's done! Don't you join in! I'll give you the solution to fix it later tonight."

"... Fine, but if you don't have it, I'll make you regret it, you hear?"

"You got it Jay. I'll see you tonight! I got to go though, police business and all. You're lucky you caught me on my break, it's been busy here."

"Bye Dickhead, see you tonight. Say hi to Amy for me, and make sure to tell her she deserves better than her dunderhead partner!"

Dick laughed at that.

"Will do, goodbye Jay!" And with that, he hung up.

~x~

As soon as night fell, Red Hood was off like a shot, racing across the rooftops to their rondevu point. He was beyond ready to have his hair back to normal. There was no reason to give his brothers any more blackmail opportunities than they have already had.

The meeting spot was closer to Red Hood's territory than Nightwing's, the area worn down, and the buildings around them older, though not old enough for the rich to call them classy and try to make anything of them. The buildings were cloaked in deep shadows made softer by the weak, yellowing street lights, that could not be depended upon not to flicker. Below them, the few shops that were still open illuminated the streets with their own flickering signs of neon. And as Hood arrived, across from him stood phone lines, upon which a flauntingly relaxed figure laid, in a position that could only be comfortable for an acrobat.

"You comfy up there, asshole?"

"Could sleep like a baby." Jason huffed, of course he could.

"You going to give me that solution you promised?"

"Hmmmm, I don't wanna."

"Dick!" The figure let out a deep chuckle that had the wire he was laying on shaking.

"Okay! Okay," Nightwing sat up quickly, causing the phone line to wobble violently, but the man kept his balance like he was born up there, (which may as well be true), dug out a little spray can from somewhere on his person that Jason didn't want to think about, (There were no visible pockets in that suit, and it was skin tight-where did he keep this stuff?!) and tossed it to him. Jason caught the object in one hand, already getting ready to rip off his helmet and use the thing when they heard the scream. It must've been close, seeing as how loud and sharp the sound was, and with a shared glance, the duo was off, running and jumping between rooftops racing towards the sound even as Jason stuffed the small can in his jacket, grumbling.


	2. Chapter 2: An Easy Night

A/N: Edited December 30, 2018

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Chapter 2

In the street below them sat a little, aging diner; the kind with cracked vinyl booths, peeling paint, leaky, stained, ceiling tiles, and overly greasy food. The neon sign in the window pronounced the restaurant was open, but the five gunmen inside threatening the families and staff seemed to have the opposite effect of welcoming customers in. From where Hood and Nightwing were poised on the building across the way, Nightwing perched on a tiny window ledge several stories up, and Red Hood slightly below upon one of the city's many gargoyles, they could make out around twelve individuals being threatened, most huddling low, tucked into their booths, and if that wasn't possible, under the tables. Only two of individuals were standing, one who looked like a cashier and the other was another staff member that stood protectively next to them, both behind a wooden countertop.

The gunmen themselves were wearing deep bronze drama masks, and were waving around guns that Hood had never seen before, and taking into consideration the sheer number of guns that Hood had seen in his life, that was saying something. They reminded Hood of some of the alien tech that he had seen with Roy and Kori on some of their Outlaw missions, and yet none of the alien tech he'd seen before looked quite like this. The guns resembled a motherboard from the innards of a gutted computer; with wires twisting around the weapon randomly, and in the gaps between the wires at the weapons core shone a bright, ominous blue light. There were random bits of metal covering the weapon that seemed to be there to protect arbitrary bits of wiring, as well as to make a grip for the weapon, though not one suited for human hands. The way the grip was designed, Hood would say it was made for a much larger creature, as well as one with only three fingers. They were certainly not the type of guns that Hood was used to seeing. How these men had gotten a hold of the weapons was definitely a mystery, and one he was sure they'd be interrogating them about as soon as this was over.

"You ever seen weapons like that, Wing?" Hood asked. He knew Nightwing had had his own adventures beyond Earth, it was possible he'd come across something like this on one of his missions, even if Hood himself could not say the same.

"Can't say I have. I take that to mean you haven't either then?" Nightwing replied from his perch, the vigilante's eyes never leaving their prey.

"Never."

"Welp. Best avoid them in any case." Nightwing said, his voice uplifting into a chipper tone.

"Yes, because I totally wanted them to hit me before you said that." Hood said, rolling his eyes at his brother.

"And I couldn't have that could I!"

That one earned the blue and black clothed hero a sharp look, before Hood turned back to the robbery taking place below them. It was looking like the robbers were starting to get nervous, though one of them was more obvious than the others. The thief in question was shifting their weight back and forth, and kept anxiously glancing at the door every few seconds. That was always a bad mix; anxious generally meant trigger happy, and if Nightwing and Hood didn't step in soon they were going to get someone in there killed.

"You distract the robbers, I get the civilians out?" Hood asked, already shooting off a line and moving to swing through the restaurant's window. They'd get it replaced afterwards.

"Deal!" Nightwing called out after him, flipping off his perch and launching his own line to set him bursting through the same window. No need to cause more damages than necessary, even if they both knew the Wayne foundation would cover the costs. The Foundation was always willing to help with damage costs caused by criminal (and vigilante, though they didn't advertise it as such) actions.

Bursting in like this, Hood was able to down two of them with rubber bullets before the thieves realized what was happening, but they recovered quickly and immediately started firing on them with bright blue beams of light. Hood hit the ground rolling his momentum off, before springing up and kicking over a table to use as cover from whatever the fuck it was they were shooting at him. Nightwing, acrobat that he was, didn't have to do the same, already spinning, flipping, rolling, and twisting, and all in all contorting his body in quite impossible ways as he danced around the blasts from the robbers strange weapons.

Covered as he was by the table, and with Nightwing prancing about the place and generally distracting the criminals until he could get close enough to take them out, Hood was easily able to turn to the civilians huddled around him on the ground and survey them. No one so far looked injured, just terrified and most likely in shock. Luckily, to get to the door out of the diner they would not have to get pass any of the gunmen, all they'd have to do was stay low and quiet and they should be able to make it.

So with that in mind, Hood slowly, as not to startle them, raised one finger to where his lips would be on his helmet to tell them to stay quiet, and gestured them to follow him. A few gave shaky nods, and he took that as good enough, glancing over to make sure Nightwing still had the others attention. Luckily for them, Nightwing was doing a very good job distracting the others with all his flare and dramatics, though he'd also since taken another one down, leaving only two still standing. It was hard to get close to anyone safely when they were this trigger happy, especially since unlike with normal guns, where they'd have to reload at some point, these weapons didn't seem to have that problem. Still, attention was away from the civilians and that's all Hood needed.

Checking that the group behind him were following, he quickly and quietly lead them around the scattered mess of tables and chairs to the doors, keeping them all kneeling low to the ground the whole way. Reaching the door, Hood slowly pushed it open to stop it from making too much noise, and herded the people with him through the door as quickly as he could, many of them taking off as soon as they passed, though some turned back to help see the rest of their group through.

They were down to a one small family left still inside the building, the two members of the staff who'd been behind the counter at the start of the robbery having exited through the kitchen as soon as the robbers had turned their backs to deal with Nightwing and Hood, and the father of the little family was already slipping through the open door, when the criminals attention did exactly the wrong thing. One of the robbers turned to the doors, most likely searching for their own escape, but instead of just looking for different exit once they saw Hood, they apparently took offense that the rest of them were getting the hell out, and swung their gun around to fire on Hood and the rest of the family about to exit.

Fortunately Hood caught sight of the movement just in time to tackle the two civilians left with him out of the way, toppling a nearby table that had been behind them. Hood would totally take that one though; it made for a quick and easy shelter from the sudden barrage of blasts. He still cursed up a storm; this was the last thing they needed. Why couldn't the thief wait to try to kill him till all the civilians were out? Was that too much to ask? Looking at the family next to him, his back pressed firmly against the table protecting them, he saw a frightened mother clutching her terrified daughter to her chest, and he cursed a bit louder.

Welp. There was nothing for it but to return fire and take these idiots down. So with on last deep breath, Hood raised his weapons and swung around, keeping as much of his body tucked behind their makeshift shelter as he could as he fired at their attacker. Both his and he's opponent's first volley missed, though if Hood's helmet was off he would've sworn it singed his hair. The robber was not so lucky with the next shot, one of Hood's bullets hitting, and taking him down, leaving only one of the idiots standing. Not for long, however, as Nightwing swooped in the second the robber got distracted with his friend falling from Hood's bullets, and knocking him unconscious with a vicious kick.

Hood slowly stood, scanning the floor to make sure the rest of the would-be robbers were not moving before holstering his guns and turning to the two civilians next to him, offering them a hand up.

"You two okay?" He asked gently, recognizing the signs of shock in the two in front of him, the mother's petite hand trembling in his, with one arm still clinging tightly to her young daughter who had her face buried in her mother's shirt.

"Yes, thank you," The woman said quietly, her voice shaking, glancing between Hood and Nightwing as he made his way over, "Both of you."

"You're welcome," Nightwing told her with a soft smile, "Now, let's get you two out of here, and then Hood and I will finish dealing with these fools."

The woman gave them a shaky smile and nod, as her daughter peeked out from where she was hiding her face to look at them. Hood gave her a little wave, and with a little 'meep!', the girl quickly buried her face again. Nightwing laughed, and started leading the two out.

"So what's your name, sweetie?" He asked the little girl, trying to draw her out, and calm her down.

"M-Mary, sir." The girl said in a small voice. Nightwing gave her a warm smile.

"Mary, huh? Well that's a beautiful name! Ain't it a beautiful name Hood?" Nightwing said to Hood over his shoulder, before quickly turning back to the girl, not bothering to wait for Hood's response before going on.

"My name's Nightwing! And this is my little brother, Red Hood, but you can ignore him, he's a grumpy pants anyway." Nightwing told her conspiratorially with a stage whisper. The girl's mother gave a growing smile at Nightwing's attempts to cheer the two up.

"Hey!" Hood said indignantly, even though he didn't really mind. Mary gave a quiet giggle.

"Did you guys get your dinner interrupted earlier?" The girl nodded with more courage than she had before.

"Well, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll-" Nightwing paused, glancing over his shoulder again to include Hood, but then something else caught his attention and his eyes widened and he suddenly shouted, "HOOD, BEHIND YOU!"

Jason whirled around to see one of the thugs who'd been unconscious had woken up, and had their strange gun pointed right at him. Before he could react, the gun was being fired and in an instant he was hit. The last thing he remembered seeing before it all went black was the little family and his brother standing in horror, and then, Nightwing in anger, flying at something, and then it was all fuzzy and fading, and the sounds of the fight that had been blazing in his ears grew dull, and faint sounds of what might've been his name drowned in his ears, and, and- was that Dick? No. No it wasn't-, but then? Bright blue eyes, he saw bight- no, dull. Dull blue eyes. Eyes? No, it was darkness, only darkness.

And then, it became brilliantly bright. So very, very bright, like the sun had decided to come out from behind the clouds, and then decided that wasn't enough and it tried to swallow them whole. And the pain that had been but a dull throb, roared to life, forcing a piercing scream from his lips, and it felt like every inch of him was being ripped apart and reconfigured. And as suddenly as it had started, it came to a blissful end, and Jason slipped into unconsciousness.


	3. Chapter 3: A Rude Awakening

Waking up wasn't fun. He wasn't fully awake either; he only saw flits of things. The dull red brick and silver metal of buildings. A city? The strong smell of rotten food. Murky gray, long shadows. An alley maybe? The buzz of people, traffic. Then more darkness. Footsteps, voices. People were coming. He needed to move, to leave. He couldn't keep his eyes open. Muffled voices were ringing in his ears. He could smell the stench of alcohol get stronger as he heard footsteps approach…

"And what do we have here, eh? A wittle baby trying play hero? 'Least it looks like the kid has some toys on 'em. " A hand was coming towards him, he had to do something.

As soon as he felt the thief's hand, he shot out a vicious punch with as much strength as he could muster, his other hand automatically reaching for his holstered gun. The thief let out a cry and fell back.

"D-don't," Hood said, lifting his gun shakily and pointing it towards his assaulters.

"H-hey now, put the gun down, we don't want trouble do we?" A second, younger voice nervously said. Slowly, Hood's vision began to clear. In front of him were two men, one looked to be in his late teens to early twenties while the other man looked like he was in his late forties. The older man was on his back, groaning from the punch, but he was slowly getting up, while the younger stood behind him, hands half raised in surrender. Slowly, Hood's hands became steadier, and his voice grew stronger with them.

"No, I don't think you do. Which is why you should leave, right now." Jason told the kid, the end of his sentence turning into a growl. The kid gulped and fumbled backward a few steps, but the older man simply laughed mockingly.

"Yeah right, I bet ya don't even have real bullets in there! His bluffin' us!"

"You want to test me ya old coot?" Hood taunted him. The man growled before giving Hood a sneer.

"Why not? Go on boy, shoot us!" Hood's hand was a blur as he drew his gun (the one that carried real bullets) and shot a centimeter from the old man's head and into the alley wall. The man fell stunned, and the kid looked terrified.

"Still want me to shoot you?" Hood asked them calmly, and that was all the kid needed to start bolting. Hood let him go, still weary from whatever that weird gun had shot him with, and focused on the old man as he stumbled back and mumbled with jumbled words.

"I, I didn't mean-! You don't-, no! I'll go! I'll go!" And with that the man stumbled drunkenly out of the alley before taking off in a sprint as well. Jason let out a sigh of relief; he didn't have the energy to get into a real fight right now. Carefully, he closed his eyes and started taking inventory of his injuries. His head felt like a herd of stampeding elephants had come through and his concussion from the other night was only making it worse. And he was pretty sure one or two of his bruised ribs were now broken. A few of his wounds from the night before had reopened, bleeding through the bandages Dick had put on him, but other than that, he was alive. He was alive! He hadn't been expecting that.

But where was he? He obviously wasn't in the same place he had been shot, or he would be waking up in the Batcave being subjected to Alfred's care, or he'd still be in that stupid bank. This was most definitely not the Batcave. The Batcave didn't look, smell, or feel like some big city alley, nor did the bank he'd been in. This couldn't even be Gotham, everything was entirely too clean, and those two deadbeats had been too easy to scare off for him to still be in Gotham. So where the hell was he? Slowly and painfully, Jason opened his eyes, stood, and stumbled to the mouth of the alley.

Yeah, this definitely wasn't Gotham, the buildings looked more like places he'd seen when he had visited New York. But that couldn't be right, how had he gotten to New York? Wait, but he was shot with that strange gun, maybe it wasn't supposed to kill him like he had thought it was, but to transport him? But why here? In an abandoned alley? Why would dumping him in some alley a few cities away be more beneficial to them than just killing him? True, death hadn't kept its clutches on him very long the last time, but still, those low level thugs couldn't have known that; it's not like he was very open with that information or he could do it again. Not that he wasn't happy that he wasn't dead. He didn't want to die again, not anymore. At one point he had, when he had just come back and he was being driven mad every second, when every minute was painful. But not anymore. At first, it had been his thirst for vengeance that had given him a reason to go on. He'd become so fixated on it that it became everything; it drove him, sometimes for the good, and sometimes for the bad. Ultimately there were many decisions he made because of it that he wished he could recant, but after he'd gotten past that, it was keeping Gotham safe, keeping the things that had been done to him from happening to anyone else, that gave him a real purpose, and having Dick's support had definitely helped. Helped him tame the madness, made it less painful.

Sometimes Jason thought that was the reason his older brother acted so childish. To distract Jason from the painful throes of his life, and Jason really appreciated it. Even if it did annoy the hell out of him when the man did it the majority of the time, Jason couldn't ignore that it had helped.

'Whoa, where did all that psychological shit come from?' Jason thought, and then sighed and gave the cityscape around him a thorough once over. People were bustling around everywhere, and the street was crowded with traffic. The buildings looked damaged, like something big had happened here, and lots of places had been destroyed along the way. But it'd been a while, he could see construction starting to mend and build anew what had been damaged, so it'd probably happened a few months ago. If Jason had to guess, he'd say it'd been four, maybe five months since the destruction had been inflicted. Where ever he was looked like it was the on the poorer side of the city, and construction and funding always reached the poorer places last.

But what happened? He didn't remember anything happening in New York to this scale, it didn't make sense. Time travel was a possibility though, he supposed. Jason remembered stories the League had told him about their escapades in time travel from his Robin days, but he also remembered tales of alternate worlds with both evil and good versions of familiar heroes. Neither possibility was good, but at least with time travel, Jason would be familiar with the people and the history of things. If it was dimension travel he could expect anything from an evil Justice League to a lovey dovey Bats (and wasn't that just a disturbing image!).

Whatever it was, Jason needed to figure it out and find a way home. He didn't want to be here any longer than he had to be. But first, he needed to find a place to crash. Even if this wasn't Gotham, it would be stupid to sleep on the streets, especially since he didn't know what to expect from this city, time, world, or whatever the hell it was. So with that thought in mind, Jason took off his helmet and mask, hiding them as best he could while keeping them on his person, and zipped up his brown leather jacket before he joined the crowd of bustling people and began to search the area he found himself in for a good temporary safehouse.

~x~

As night began to fall, Jason found himself at the entryway of an abandoned apartment building on one of the back streets of the city. The building was falling apart, but Jason had learned how to tell if a building was structurally stable as part of his training to be Robin, and he could tell the building had a decade or two of life left before it would fall on it's own, and as long as Jason didn't play with any of his explosives here, the building should hold up for his purposes. Having asserted this, Jason began picking his way through the rooms, attempting to find a tolerable one to crash in that would suit his needs. It was a room on the top floor that eventually caught his eye. The room was mostly bare, but it had an old bed frame and a ratty couch, and there were still a few beat up pieces of dishware in the cabinets. There was nothing of any value, (since anything valuable had already been picked off), but there was enough there for Jason to get by while he scrounged up some supplies.

Satisfied with his new home, Jason took stock of what weapons he still had. Three of his handguns, two holstered to his legs and one in his jacket, with enough ammo, rubber or otherwise, to last him a good long while if he used them right, a set of batarangs, several knives, and various blades that he kept in his leather jacket along with his set of lockpicks, a field medic kit, a couple smoke bombs, and several of his more explosive creations had made the trip along with him. It had never hurt to be prepared.

"Aw hell, I sound like a fucking boy scout," Jason grumbled to himself before he huffed and turned his attention back to his small arsenal. Jason pick up one of his guns and began polishing it, since of course he had brought that with him too. Hey, you could never take too much care of your weapons!

Once he finished, he carefully checked his bandages and fixed and clean his wounds where he needed to, though if Alfred were there he'd probably force the 'young master' to redo all of them. By the end of this, Jason was struggling just to keep his eyes open, and finally sleep engulfed him.


	4. Chapter 4: Looking for Answers

The sight of a small, deteriorating room was not one he had been expecting when he opened his eyes, even though it was the one he remembered from the night before. He'd honestly been hoping the whole, getting shot and waking up in some strange ass place, thing had all be a dream, as cliché as that may seem. Morning light shone through the broken window and made the place look creepier than it had the night before, but Jason didn't mind it much. Though he did make a note to pick up the place some so he didn't stupidly cut himself on broken glass. It was understood within the crime fighting community that no matter the level, if an injury was avoidable, avoid the hell out of it. And if that meant actually putting forth an effort to clean, so be it. That and if Alfred ever figured out he lived in a place this filthy without doing anything to try to rectify it, there'd be hell to pay. Pots and pans lay on the counters from Jason's investigation of the apartment the night before and from where Jason lay across the defeated couch, he could see his weapons still on the ground in front of him. Languidly, Jason sat up. He was practically the embodiment of sore, and he did not appreciate it one bit. Everything that could hurt did. But his stomach and brain pushed him to get up and start moving, so with no end of reluctance, he did.

His first order of business would have to be getting food. It felt like he hadn't eaten in weeks, and while he usually would just ignore his stomach, he didn't know much about where he was and if he went to a diner he could hopefully get some information about wherever the hell he was. Perhaps while he was there he could get a newspaper to check for time travel and other pertinent information. And of course, the most important thing, food. Food was good.

After he had eaten if he still wasn't sure of where he was, he could go to a library and search their computers. Once he knew the essentials of where he was, he planned on rounding up some information from the city's underbelly. It was basic knowledge that if you find yourself in a new city, you find out who's boss and how much power they have. When you know what you're dealing with you can take them out as need be, or go around in the shadier parts of town without worrying about any nasty surprises. If this world had a Joker Jason didn't want to unwittingly fall into his hands. That and if he wanted any respect from the criminals here, he couldn't look like a complete idiot. Idiots were betrayed too readily.  
If Bruce was right about one thing, it was that with criminals image is everything. If you had some type of fear factor on your side, and didn't seem to be incompetent, you could go far in the criminal world. If criminals thought they could get away with pulling wool over your eyes, they were going to try. If they think they can't fool you and that you're scary enough to kill 'em, they'll leave you the fuck alone. Jason learned that way before Bats picked him up (he just wasn't quite big enough to implement that tactic).

So diner it was. Jason always kept some cash on him in case of emergency so paying for it wouldn't be a problem, but it wasn't enough to live off of for long. After he figured out where the hell he was, he'd have to look into getting more if it turned out he had to stay here for a prolonged amount of time. Having decided this, Jason started meticulously restocking his jacket. While he couldn't walk in while visibly armed to the teeth, it wasn't a good idea to leave home without some good ol' backup either. In the form of a plethora of weapons of course. He also didn't want to leave any behind just to find them stolen. This wasn't the type of place you just leave valuables lying around after all. So he hid his thigh holsters (and the guns they held), under his clothes, and double-checked to make sure none of his weapons could be noticed. When he was satisfied with this, he left the old building and started scoping out the city for a decent breakfast house, making sure he knew his way back to his temporary home along the way.

* * *

Eventually, he found a suitable diner. It was a small building snug in the corner of the plaza squashed between two larger businesses, and it looked like it had been standing there before the rest of this part of the city had even been thought up. It's old timey feel added to it's charm though, and for such a little diner it had a steady flow of customers, leading Jason to believe either the service or the food were better than the surrounding businesses. It reminded Jason of a place a Clark would eat at, honestly, but food was food, and this was a good a place as any to get it.

The diner's door opened with a pleasant 'ding', and Jason was instantly greeted by wonderful smells and cheery hellos from the waitress' and waiters. One broke away from what they were doing and swiftly lead him to an empty booth next to the window, plopping a menu down in front of him before disappearing back to their previous task, assuring him that a waiter would be by shortly. Looking around, Jason saw the inside of the diner had much the same atmosphere as he'd noticed outside: warm, old timey, and quite cozy. Jason spared a glance at his menu before deciding to ask for whatever was good and big cup of coffee with the day's newspaper before turning back to his examinations. The place had plenty of customers, but it didn't make the space feel cramped despite the buildings small size. A splattering of art, old pictures and movie posters hung on the walls and all the tables and booth's were spaced evenly, making sure that there was more than enough space to have a private conversation while still being able to fit all the customers that the diner would have to seat on any given day.

Soon enough a waitress walked over to take his order. The young woman was on the short side, with dull brown hair hung in pigtails that made her look even younger, and vibrant green eyes. She wore the diner's uniform made up of a white button up, a knee-length black skirt, and a dark green apron, along with her own grass green bandanna tying stray hairs back, and a chipper smile on her face that it was much too early in the morning for.

"Hello!" She said as she bounced over. "Welcome to Sophia's Breakfast and Diner! My name is Iris and I'll be your server today~! Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Um, yeah," Jason paused, a bit overwhelmed by the girl's buoyant energy, " I'd like a cup of coffee, and whatever food item's your favorite. Oh, and can I get a newspaper?"

The girl, Iris, blinked at him, but didn't question it*.

"Uh, sure-, I'll get that right out for ya." She replied with a warm, if a bit confused, smile, which he returned politely. After a few minutes Iris came back with a newspaper.

"You know, you don't strike me as the type to read the papers, what with that punk look you got going on. I do take it that red isn't your natural color?" She joked lightly.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Jason had honestly forgotten about his hair until that moment in all the mayhem that had been the past few days for him. "No, it's not. Blame my prankster of an older brother."

She just laughed and left him to it, and as soon as she did, Jason began reading the paper.

* * *

Heroes or Villains?  
By: Lester Verde

Heroes or villains, this is the question on all our minds with the recent invasion of aliens, now known as the Chitauri. The Avengers, made up of Captain America (also known as Steve Rogers, and celebrated as one of the first superheroes), Iron Man (better known as Tony Stark), Thor Odinson, The Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, fended off the alien aggressors and their leader, Loki Laufeyson of Asgard. Because of this, the group of mainly super powered beings appears to be the heroes of this story. But with the expenses for damages their defense of New York caused mounting, some citizens are questioning things, especially with the rumored connection between Loki and Thor, and the mysterious identities of Black Widow, Hawkeye and the Hulk remaining unknown. Some of our local politicians argue that the Avengers should be paying for the damages they have caused, while others argue that it is us that owe them a debt for saving our city, and by extension, the world, from Loki's nefarious plans.  
With the government agency known as SHIELD, or Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division, and Stark's own company, Stark Industries, recently stepping forward to help pay for damages many of these complaints have slowly halted, but there still remains the questionable relation between our heroes and Loki. If the rumors are true and Thor and Loki are brothers, could it be possible that our 'heroes' planned the whole invasion?

* * *

The article went on like that for quite awhile before the paper turned to other topics, but Jason kept thinking about the first article. He was obviously in a different dimension. He'd been correct about this being New York, but this was definitely a different New York than the one he was familiar with. He didn't recognize any of the names of New York's 'heroes', and he couldn't have been sent anywhere in time because the date on the paper was still right. So he was more stuck than he'd originally thought, (or rather hoped,) he was. This being a different dimension, there was no one he knew here, no strings he could pull, no debts he could call in, nothing. But he wasn't Red Hood for nothing; he'd find a way… If there was a way to be found.

Still, he'd have to do his research. He would need to become familiar with this world's heroes if he wanted to avoid them and their most probable idiocy. His world's heroes were idiots anyway, and so it seemed likely these heroes would be as well. He would also have to find out the extent of this world's resources to see if they had the level of technology that it would take to get him home. That would all take a computer though, and since, unlike Dick, he didn't have a wrist computer, he'd have to visit a library and use one of theirs. It was after this thought went through his mind that his food arrived.

"Here you go! Best dish in the house! Was there anything else you needed?" Iris tweeted happily, and a dimension away or not, Jason swore this girl could be related to Dick just for their shared attribute of endless peppiness.

"No, thank you." Was Jason's only reply, though it was followed by a small smile when she beamed back at him before practically skipping away.

"Enjoy your meal!" She sang back at him from over her shoulder. Jason shook his head of his thoughts and quickly ate his food.

* * *

After Jason finished his food he got directions to the Library from Iris. The library was a grand, white building, with columns that held up the overhanging roof that stood over it's doors, and two matching stone lions guarding the pathway up to it. The inside of the building was just as grand. Rows of tables sat in the middle of the building and shelves upon shelves of books surrounded them. People were scattered throughout the space, some sitting at the tables, some scouring the shelves, some simply wandering around. Near the doors though, was an information desk, just the place Jason needed. Jason strode up to it and asked the elderly librarian if he could borrow a computer for a school project, (he knew he could pass as a college student). She gave him a polite smile and pointed him over to them. Time to get some answers.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Sorry guys this took me waaaaaaay to long to get done, but I've had a lot of school stuff lately and have been going slightly insane. Not that I wasn't insane already... I probably am... Eh, oh well. ANYWAY! I hope you enjoyed this! And if you did please review, and if you didn't, well please review anyway and tell what you think could be better. X) Thank you guys


	5. Chapter 5: Gathering Intel

The first thing he searched for was information on New York's so called 'heroes'. The results were quite varied. Stark was for all intents and purposes, Bats Brucie act. He'd made a lot of incredibly bad decisions, thrown more than a couple wild as hell parties, and he could to be as arrogant as the worst of Gotham's elite. But he was unarguably brilliant, and if Jason was going to make it home, it'd probably have to be using the Tin Can's tech. Next came Rogers. Spangles was virtually this universe's version of Big Blue, Mr. Boy Scout himself. Rogers was this world's first super, which Jason found odd, (in his world there'd been supers since around World War One), until he found out that Gramps had served in World War Two, gotten himself frozen in some iceberg for a couple of decades without aging, and then was only found and unfrozen recently. So he wasn't actually a ninety something year old fighting an alien invasion, just a time displaced hero. Wasn't the weirdest thing Jason had heard that turned out to be true. Rogers was the group's leader, but Jason would be damned if the good captain wasn't taking orders from someone, he was too much of a soldier not to be.

Then there was Thor. The Norse god. It wasn't that Jason couldn't believe it, or didn't think it was possible, (he knew enough Amazonians to know that it was,) it was just that all the god's in his universe didn't typically do anything helpful. Regardless of the situation. So it was kind of surprising to see them helping here. Honestly, it was easier for Jason to believe the guy was just a long-living alien than a god.

What he read of Ms. Foster's research on Thor's transportation was intriguing though. The idea of the Bifrost being a portal between worlds could mean it was his ticket home. But the research Ms. Foster had was fresh, and sketchy at best if he was going to trust his life to it. He'd have to do more research into it before he tested anything.

Black Widow was another interesting member of the rag tag team. She moved like a highly trained assassin, and though she was not quite on Cassandra's level, she was as close as Jason had ever seen. (With the exception of Lady Shiva, (but Lady Shiva's Lady Shiva, so… yeah), still, that's a fuck ton of skill.). Other then that small ounce of knowledge on her though, Jason couldn't find anything on her. It was the same with the Hawk guy. He could tell the guy had a lot of skill, (the guy was as good as Roy, and everyone knew Roy was the better shot between Red Arrow and his mentor), and he found out they both worked for an agency called SHIELD, but there was nothing other than that. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

He did find info on the Hulk though. It took some digging, but the military's servers were nothing compared to any of the Bats. The Hulk's alter ego was none other than the mild mannered science genius on gamma radiation, and BFF of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner. (Which, damn, Jason was going to have to take from the little Demon's book and call him Banner because there was no way in hell he was going to call him Bruce. Bruce was Bats and Bats was an asshole. Banner was not. Well, hopefully he wasn't. It'd suck if every Bruce Jason met was an ass. The first one he knew already kinda ruined the name for him anyway. You don't have to beat the dead horse.) Jolly Green became the Hulk through an experiment gone wrong. Not unlike a lot of the idiots back home. Greeny himself wasn't very intelligent, more a grunt than anything, but an almost unstoppable grunt, and his other side was one of the smartest men in the world. He wasn't researching anything truly helpful to Jason, but he was still a genius. He might be of some help if Jason could get it from him.

SHIELD though, hadn't they been in that newspaper? Yeah, something about them coming forward and helping pay for repairs right? If Widow and the bird guy were working for them, SHIELD must have some info on the team. It couldn't be that much harder breaking into SHIELD and having a little looksy on their files than it was to sneak into the batcave without anyone knowing. And if they did get a look at him what would they see? Obnoxious red hair and hidden facial features. He could find a different outfit so they couldn't connect him via his clothes or helmet (he'd still wear a mask of course), and he could fix his hair when he got back so it'd be it's original color again. And he'd have better info on the Avengers; what he'd found from his research was largely second hand info, and most of it was bound to have been messed with, but if he went straight to SHIELD… Get the information he wanted straight from the source… Heh, it could be fun.

A smile grew on Jason's face, and a devilish glint flickered in his eyes. Yes, that idea would do perfectly…

* * *

Finding SHIELD headquarters in New York was pretty easy. It was surrounded by water though, with only one road going to it. That would be harder. The security of the place was pretty damn good too, they had some top of the line tech and agents patrolling. It had nothing on Bats stuff, but hey, it was still pretty damn good. Jason would have to be careful if he didn't want to be caught.

Jason had already switched clothes and hidden them and his helmet safely away where he could come back for them. Heck he'd even spent a few nights just observing the place, learning the guards patrols, how the cameras that were placed in the way of the path he'd take would move, (he could of course, hack them, but where was the fun it that? Hell, part of him wanted them to catch a glimpse of him so he could watch them scramble about trying to figure out who he was and how the hell he got in there, it was always entertaining. Heck, he could even hack their cameras afterwards and break out the popcorn. Hmm, he probably shouldn't though. Why take the risk? Then again if they did happen to see him, that doesn't mean he'd actually mind… He had been getting kind of bored...), and he'd planned out his path thoroughly.

There were motion sensors under the bridge to the building, but they were easy enough to get past or trick, and he could use his zipline that he kept in a hidden compartment in his belt to swing between the bridges supports and get to the building without being spotted (he'd been doing this for the past few nights in fact to get a better look at the building itself. He hadn't been able to find the designs for the buildings layout from his hacking, and since he didn't want to run in completely blind he took to observing from the outside. Everywhere he would go tonight, had been from what he knew of buildings like this, what he saw from the outside looking through the windows, and hunches…. So, he hadn't planned as thoroughly as he'd said he had... but he'd worked with less in worse situations.) From there he'd enter the building and travel up the building to the higher ups offices (the lower offices wouldn't have the clearence he would need for this he knew), hack into one of their computers, and add a little virus he had kept on a hard drive (just in case) that would feed him info to an account he could access from wherever he wanted and it would self-destruct if it was found. After that he'd just have to exit the same way he came in. Simple.

"Time to find out what SHIELD's hiding," Jason whispered with a devious smile stretching across his face, his voice swallowed in the wind. He stood from his perch on a building next to the road to SHIELD's base and stretched his muscles. Then, in one fluid movement, he swung from the roof to the empty street below, and took off towards the bridge.

* * *

A/N: Sorry guys, this is a short chapter. But I wanted to get this set up, and I felt that him breaking into SHIELD should be it's own chapter. It will be easier for Hood to get into SHIELD than it would be for some other characters, (Tony for instance, for all his intelligence, is not the type to sneak around like Jason or others do, and even if he tried, he would be caught faster. He could get past the tech easily, but not the agents.), but it's still not going to be as easy as Jason thinks it will be. And that's all I'm going to say about that. X) Thank you guys for reading and your lovely reviews! I love seeing what you guys think!


	6. Chapter 6: Breaking into SHIELD

BOOM!

An explosion rang out from behind the wall Jason was hiding behind, and with it followed the ungodly ringing noise clogging his ears that came with all explosions, accompanied by the sound of a symphony of gunshots being fired at him. This didn't stall Jason's next move in the least; he'd grown used to the noise over all the years he'd been around the darn things, (using them himself, or being caught up in them), and he wasn't a newbie to being shot at. He swung out from behind his hiding spot and dove to the hole the explosion he'd caused made in the building's outer wall, trying his best to dodge the tsunami of bullets that were coming his way.

This wasn't how he'd thought this would go.

A flash of pain tore through his arm as a bullet clipped him, and a small cry escaped his lips. But he didn't stop, he kept running, launching himself out the window of the sixth story and clawing for his zipline even as the wound started gushing.

It was worth it though, he thought with a small, slightly pained, but still mischievous smirk gracing his lips.

~x~

Two hours earlier

~x~

There air stilled as Jason reached the bridge to SHIELD's headquarters and climbed down to its underbelly. Silence clung to the night as Jason swung between its supports, the wind strong in his ears. Getting into the building was easy, heck, the Little Demon could do it; finding the way to where he wanted was harder. For all he'd observed of the building from the outside, it didn't change the fact that the place was like a maze and everything looked alike: each office empty of any personality or other identifying characteristics. Still, he eventually found the right way, skirting guards and cameras alike like he'd been doing it his whole life, (which he practically had).

' _Heh, looks like it's going to be an easy night, maybe I will get a chance to mess with SHIELD's heads after all.'_ Jason thought as he slipped into an office on the sixth floor that he'd just picked the lock to. The office had a very open design, as was the case with the majority of higher ups offices Jason had, let's just say, _visited_. Full length windows formed the wall in front of him, and a dark oakwood desk sat in front of it facing towards him. Cushy chairs sat on either side of the desk, and an expensive looking computer sat on top of it next to two different piles made up of files and papers with a jar of writing utensils resting beside them. Jason quickly slid behind the desk and started booting up the computer, already searching for a port to plug in the hard drive carrying the virus. Soon enough, the computer was up and demanding passwords (which he swiftly hacked passed) and then he was downloading the hard drive's virus to the computer while meticulously covering up the evidence of it.

A few minutes later and Jason had all of the information the computer held. Standing, Jason took the hard drive from the computer and began to stride towards the door, when he heard the sound of muffled voices from the other side.

Shit! There hadn't been people still working in this office that last few nights, why were they there now?! Jason faltered for a minute, and then swiveled his head around for a hiding spot with urgency that hadn't been there the whole night. There was nothing! Except, except… under the desk. The most cliche and easily findable hiding place ever. But he had no other option, he'd just have to hope they wouldn't come behind the desk if they came in.

It wasn't easy to get all six feet of his wide frame under the desk, but he managed to pull it off, (somehow). He drew one of his guns just in case things took a turn for the worst, and waited in complete silence, listening for the voices to either go by, or enter the office he was stuck in. As the voices came closer, Jason started to make out what they were saying.

"I could've sworn I saw something on the monitor though! There's someone up here Mia!"

"You're just jumpy. There's no one here newbie. Face it, no one can get past all that security. Director Fury made sure of that after Loki's attack on the helicarrier. There's cameras, motion detectors, heat detectors, retina recognition locks, passwords that change hourly, the whole shebang! No one's getting in Jode!"

Now _that_ just _made_ Jason want to do something. He just _had to_ now! But first he had to get out of here without those two seeing him… Then he'd let the cameras catch a glimpse of him when they were no longer a threat and he'd toy with them.

"But, what if someone did?! I know what I saw!"

"Ugh! Would you just shuddup already! I'm tired of your bullshit!"

The first voice huffed, and by Jason's guess, the voice was a young man (maybe mid-twenties?), while the second voice was female, and maybe five? Ten years older? The first continued.

"Fine, but if someone really is here it's on your head! Got it?"

"Whatever."

"Don't whatever me! This is serious-!"

And as Jason continued to listen, the voices came closer, and closer, until…. They passed, walking past his door and down the hall. Jason let out a relieved sigh.

He might want to toy with them, but he didn't want a fight just yet. Not when he still didn't know what all they were capable of.

~x~

Honestly, Jason was just about to leave; he'd gotten all he needed. But then he saw the false wall, and what could he say? His curiosity was sparked. It was child's play getting in; their security was only a level or two higher than pentagon level, (and to make this clear, hacking the pentagon was how the Bats learned _how to hack._ ). Honestly, it felt like they were just asking for it. The false wall lead to a nondescript room full of filing cases and hologram monitors. There wasn't much there but if they were trying to hide something it was probably either going to be here or in the Boss' office. Either way, if he wanted the info he needed, this was where he was going to get it. After scanning the room for any additional security measures and slipping past the ones he found, he strode over to one of the monitors. It didn't have an access able port like the other one did, so he would have to do this the old fashion way. It would be a bit slower, (there was a reason he used the hard drive after all,) but he would get what he wanted in the end.

Hacking in took much longer than it would normally, (to the point where Jason was starting to believe what he'd hacked before had been an elaborate cover. The info he'd gotten from it was probably close to the truth, but only so it'd be a better lie.), but in about half an hour he had all the info the computer could offer him, and had already sent it to the a new server similar to the one that held the false data he'd hacked(If the false data was being tracked, this way it couldn't be tracked back to him). Jason took a little while covering his tracks, hiding the evidence that they'd been hacked. It'd fuck with them more when they found out he knew this stuff if they couldn't find out how the hell he knew it. It was a can of worms he always loved to open on these types, (you know, the type the needs to know _everything?_ Hell, feels _entitled_ to know everything? Yeah, they were definitely the funnest to mess with.).

Job done, Jason slipped back out of the hidden room and continued on his way like he'd never found the place to begin with. Once Jason found the path back out of the building, he decided to implement his plan to screw with them. He had everything he needed and no one was close by enough to immediately attack him, so he could escape relatively easy. It was a good a time as he was going to get.

Decision made, he purposefully stepped into a nearby camera's line of sight (making sure it could see him completely,) and did the sassiest pose you ever saw, all with the same badassery that came from simply being Jason fucking Todd. One hand placed cockily on his hip, the other flipping the camera with a sly half smile on his lips, his tongue sticking out at them playfully from between his teeth. Then, just to mess with them all the more, he disappeared from sight just as suddenly and stealthily as a true Bat. So short was his time in the camera's view, if the guards monitoring the cameras blinked they would've missed it, and the ones who did see it were questioning their eyesight, having to rewind the film and recheck themselves before they finally raised the alarm.

Jason chuckled as he strolled through the hallways now blaring alarms and flashing bright red lights. He might need to take a short cut now, but this was oh so much more fun than sneaking around like he had been doing. Emergency security gates started coming down and with them Jason increased his his pace, barely making it past the last one and stopping at a window built into the building's outside wall. Jason moved to the window, snatching the controlled explosives from one of his many hidden pockets and applying them to the window with speed and precision that came only with practice.

It was when he was almost done placing them that he heard the cacophony of thundering footsteps, yelling, and security gates rising for the team that had almost definitely been sent to take care of him, over the blaring of the alarms. ' _Huh, didn't think they'd get to me that quickly,'_ he thought as he sped his hands along as much as he could risk while dealing with explosives. As he placed the last one, the last security door began sliding up, revealing a team of about fifteen SHIELD agents, guns drawn, raised, and all pointing towards him.

"FREEZE HYDRA!" The foremost agent yelled at him. As he watched them in the reflection of the window they fanned out, beginning to surround him. Carefully he turned around, trying to stall their fire for a moment so he could get to the ignition switch he kept in his belt.

"Who the fuck are you callin' a Hydra?! Do I look like a giant lizard?!" Jason replied in an angry bellow, which seemed to throw all of them off for a minute, blinking and looking at him with blank faces. Which was all he needed. Swiftly, he snatched the switch from his belt and ran sideways, dodging the wave of bullets being fired at him, to hide behind a wall blocking off the agent's line of sight, (also known as bullets). As the agents inched closer warily, Jason flipped the switch, and after five quick, high pitched beeps (just long enough to give the agents some warning so no one would die from it), the explosives went off.

BOOM!

The explosion rang out and with it followed the ungodly ringing noise clogging his ears that came with all explosions, accompanied by the sound of a symphony of gunshots being fired at him. This didn't stall Jason's next move in the least as he swung out from behind his hiding spot and dove to the hole the explosion had made in the building's outer wall, doing his best to dodge the tsunami of bullets that were coming his way.

This wasn't how he'd thought this would go.

A flash of pain tore through his arm as a bullet clipped him, and a small cry escaped his lips. But he didn't stop, he kept running, launching himself out the window; clawing for his zipline even as the wound started gushing.

It was worth it though, he thought with a small, pained, but still mischievous smirk gracing his lips. Messing with them _had_ been fun, and now he had all he needed.


	7. Chapter 7: Motivation is a funny thing

To say Fury was furious was an understatement of pure fact. His footsteps thundered as he paced his office (and do you know how angry a spy like Fury has to be for you to even be able to hear his footsteps?!), and he glowered at anything and anyone that came near. Some unknown had just broken into one of SHIELD's most secure headquarters and the _only_ reason they even _knew_ about it was because the fucker fucking WANTED them to know he was there! Not only that, but no matter how many searches Fury made, he couldn't find any trace of who the man was! The man might've been wearing a mask that obscured part of his face and made it harder to identify him, but their computers were better than that. They'd identified criminals from their cheekbones alone before, and yet this man didn't seem to exist! Yes, they knew was that at some point the man had dyed his hair, ( _ **no one**_ naturally had hair that godawful color,), but that didn't mean shit either! He could just as easily re-dye it! And when Fury tried to find out what the man had done while he was there? He found nothing, absolutely nothing!

It was Fury's job to know everything about everyone, and to make sure that people who could pull off acts like this were either working for him and him alone, or no longer a threat. But then this guy comes sauntering in like he owns the place and has the nerve to fucking taunt them about it!

So _yes,_ Fury was mad, and you could be damn sure he was going to fucking do something about it if it took fucking calling in Stark!

"Who the hell is this fucker?!" He cried in an infuriated growl, and Agent Hill who had been waiting for his orders on the subject answered in controlled exasperated frustration.

"We don't know sir."

"How is that possible!?"

"We don't know sir."

Fury let out an angry cry of vexation and stormed off to go shoot something, and perhaps, to call Stark, leaving Hill to go about her other duties.

~x~

It had been a few days since Jason had broken into SHIELD, and since then he'd happily gone back to his normal hair color, patched up his arm (though it still hurt like a bitch at times), and had a chance to look at both sets of data he'd stolen. He'd been right about the first set of data he recovered being false information, which made him even more grateful for his curiosity; exploring that false wall had saved him a lot of trouble. He'd learned quite a bit from it, though what he'd learned about SHIELD did not endear him to the organization all that much. They were for the most part, on the side of good: protecting the innocent, saving the world, yada yada yada, but they had also done some pretty damn questionable stuff. He didn't trust them as far as an elephant could jump, (as he could probably throw them pretty darn far).

And, as it turned out, the Avengers _did_ work for them as his theory had suggested; though it did seem the branch of SHIELD they worked for was slightly less dubious than some of the other divisions. The information on Black Widow was still on the vague side, and what information he did have on her did not show her best side to say the least. She, as he had already guessed, was a highly, highly trained assassin, with plenty of red on her ledger. She had worked for the Soviets before a SHIELD agent; Hunger Games in fact (i.e. Barton), brought her over to SHIELD's side. Since then she'd seemingly been attempting to atone for some of the things she had done while with the Soviets, with her latest endeavor to do so being joining the Avengers.

Legolas, on the other hand, had a slightly similar background to Goldie. The guy grew up in a circus, where he learned to shoot. The similarities ended there though, as Dicky-poo never got into the shit Hawk guy did. SHIELD was the one to get the idiot out of that shit and he'd been working for them ever since, joining the Avengers when Widow did.

Jason did his research on the recent alien invasion as well, learning about Loki and his army's attempt at taking over the world. Loki was indeed the brother of Thor, but that didn't mean much to Jason. Being related to someone doesn't automatically mean you agree with them, Jason being the case in point. From what he saw from the security tapes though, Thor was rather like Dickhead, he didn't give up on those he deemed 'family', no matter their actions. He would stand by Loki even though he would see to it that Loki's actions wouldn't go unpunished, and Jason was just fine with that.

He also researched the stone Loki used to transport his army to earth, but so far all his research had shown him was that the stone worked for transportation _**within**_ the universe you were in; not necessarily between universes. There was a possibility that it could take him back, but there was no guarantee. Which was frustrating, but something that was also rather to be expected. Anything that easy was either a trap or a lie. Life was never that simple.

Jason sighed when he finished going through the data he'd taken. This shit was getting on his last nerve. He was tired of everything he tried looking into for ways home turning into a dead end. Not even a Gotham style dead end either, that came with a trap and a whole lot of moronic lackey's to beat up; no, with this dead end all he got was nothing. A whole crap ton of nothin'. At least with Gotham style dead ends he got to release some of his pent up frustration and beat the shit outa something.

He needed to get out of the shitty apartment he'd been held up in while looking over what he'd found. Patrol would be nice, but this wasn't his city. This city had it's own protectors and while he didn't give one shit about them, he wanted them to stay out of his business and to do that he'd have to keep his head down. Patrol was out of the question. A walk wasn't though, and hopefully it'd help him get his head back in the game.

Jason slung on his jacket, checked with flitting hands to make sure his weapons were hidden and safe, and exited the crumbling building.

~x~

New York was different from Gotham in many ways. The air was cleaner, fresher. Hell, that was true for more than just New York's air, all of the city fit that description. Gotham was the epitome of dirt and grime, of crooks, traitors, felons, and lunatics. Gotham's streets were used to it. New York was not. Oh yes, it was a major city, and that came with plenty of filth and crime of its own, but it was so much softer than Gotham, so much cleaner. Better in so many ways, ways that Jason noticed as he walked its streets. It would never be home though. That was Gotham. For all it's ugliness, it was where he'd been raised. It had been the city that molded him. The city that crushed him, and the city that kept dragging him back. The one he just kept going back to, no matter what it had done to him. The city that he had decided to protect, to fix, because he was the only one who could fix it like it needed to be. The only one who _**would**_ do what needed to be done. New York wasn't bad though. Crowded and bustling though it was, it was nice.

As Jason wandered it's streets his thoughts drifted to his family. He hadn't given it much thought before, distracted by SHIELD, the new heroes, and not knowing where on earth he was. It had been an afterthought. Something he'd put on hold while he got a hold on everything. Now though, he found himself wondering how they were doing. Heck, he'd been shot, did they even know he was alive? God, that would kill Dick if he really thought-, but he'd be alright. Of course he'd be alright. He was Goldie. And Bats wouldn't rest till he knew all the facts, even if it was ridiculous, especially since they didn't have his body. B was just emotionally constipated like that. Bastard.

But they'd figure it out. Eventually. He couldn't rely on them to get him back, he didn't know how the timeline here worked in comparison; if time passed faster or slower. But he could trust them to be alright. Or at least, alright as they could be. Deaths affected the hero community differently. The rest of the family would probably overwork themselves, get themselves hurt trying to avoid the problem, the idiots. But once they figured it out, then- then they'd be fine. They had to be. Jason might act like he hated them still, but they had grown on him like fungus.

He had to, _**grudgingly**_ , admit, he considered the dorks family. When that happened, Jason had no idea, but somewhere along the line it had.

Jason sighed, and shook those thoughts from his head. There was no use dwelling on it, he was here now and there was nothing he could do to change what was happening back home, whatever did happen.

As Jason brought his mind back to the present he noticed that he had wandered to the shadier side of the city. The place still looked like some of the nicer parts of Gotham, but they were distinctly different from the streets he'd been on just a little while ago. The buildings more run down, garbage left on the street side, filling in little nooks and crannies along the walls, broken windows repaired with duct tape and scrap wood. Yet there were still kids running up and down the street, tossing a beat up ball back and forth, playing a strange mix between hot potato, tag, and football, dodging around parked cars that sat on either side of the street as they did, their voices echoing and filling the street with sound. A few parents sat on their doorsteps, keeping an eye on the kids as they talked with one another, while of few feet over a couple of teens leaned against a nearby alley corner smoking cigarettes and chatting quietly. It was a peaceful scene, and while Jason received a suspicious glance once or twice, the people paid him no mind. It was decidedly nice; somewhere he dreamed as a kid that he and his mom might one day live. But that hadn't happened, it never would, and so Jason let his feet wander onwards and forced his mind to drift to other subjects.

~x~

His thoughts were snapped back into place by a piercing scream, and without thinking his body was already in motion, running towards the sound. He was in a different area than he remembered, darker, more beat up, with empty streets and forlorn buildings. The sun had begun to set at least an hour ago, and street lamps were beginning to flicker to life. He hadn't realized how long he'd been roaming around before, but that didn't matter now.

The cries got louder as he neared them, rounding on a narrow alley and only pausing for a split second to take in the scene. Three men surrounded a woman who was clutching one of her children, the other child standing in front of the two, trying in vain to protect them. All of the men were armed with guns, though only one was actually using the weapon, the others choosing to use a knife and their fists respectively. The men were clearly threatening the woman, though what they were trying to get from her, money or worse, Jason didn't wait long enough to hear, throwing his fist at the nearest man, who happened to be the one holding the gun. The man went down immediately with a loud thud. The other two men swung around to greet him, but Jason didn't wait for them to finish turning, already throwing the next punch and disarming the knife wielder with a kick. They were all down quickly. The kid tucked under his mother's arms let out a frightened cry and burrowed deeper into his mother's embrace, while the girl standing in front flinched and took an unsure step back, her mother trying to pull her back with a fumbling hand.

"Whoa there! I'm not gonna hurt ya," Jason said as soothingly as he could, raising his hands to show he was unarmed as he turned towards them, taking a step back to reassure them of his intent. "Just trying to help. You three okay?"

The mother let out a shaky breath that quickly turned into a trembling laugh, brushing a stray lock of ebony hair behind her ear with her free hand as she did(quite likely a nervous tic), before reaching out again for her daughter's shoulder, the other arm still wrapped tightly around her son, her dark eyes wide. " Y-yes, we're fine. Thank you."

"I could'a taken 'em!" The girl standing in front grumbled, shaking off her mother's hand as she did. The girl looked maybe eight, and had the most expressive warm brown eyes Jason had ever seen, with light caramel skin a shade paler than her mother's, and a mountain of long dark brown curls that sat on her head. The girl had dirt smudged across her cheek, and her clothes had suffered a worse fate, dirt stained into places, her sleeves haphazardly pushed up, and the start of loose threads hanging in places where the cloth had been worn thin from play. Jason gave a gentle laugh.

"I'm sure you could've kid, but I wasn't gonna risk it, for your mother's sake and all, don't want her worrying too much now do we?" Jason told her with a warm smile. The girl grumbled and gave him the stink eye, but eventually conceded a 'I guess so,'.

"At least you're better than those Avenger poo faces. They don't even keep the streets of their own city safe! " The girl continued, growing louder as she went. "They're too busy doing other stupid things that they never do their job and protect _us_!"

"Aubrey Mae Thompson! You know better than to say things like that! The Avengers saved New York from those creatures! Be respectful!" The girl's mother scolded her, and right then Jason decided that her daughter must've gotten her eyes from her mother as he watched as they flashed with annoyance. The girl, Aubrey apparently, just scowled up at her.

"Oh come on Mom! You were thinking it too! Everyone does! Mr. Craffin on the corner said the Avengers were the ones who started the whole thing anyway!"

"And I told you not to talk to Mr. Craffin didn't I?!" The girl pouted at her, crossing her arms petulantly. "Don't you give me that face young lady! It may be true that the Avengers don't do much to protect New York from crimes like this, but that doesn't mean they don't do anything!"

"But Momma," The little boy at the woman's side spoke up, his own chocolate brown eyes looking up imploringly at her. "I heard you talkin' to Mrs. Hillistre about how you wanted the Avengers to do more. And you called them ass-" The woman quickly clamped her hand other the boys mouth.

"Yes, I'm sure I did, but you are not allowed to say that word, even if you're just repeating it. "

"Ha! So you do think the Avengers were buttholes!" The girl cried, excited to have cornered her mother on the subject. Her mother just sighed.

"Fine, I admit, I don't like how the Avengers are doing certain things!" The woman said exasperated, and glanced at Jason apologetically. "Now, quit bothering the young man who just helped us! We need to get home before anything else happens."

"I can walk you if that'll help, or if you want to call the police about these louts I'll stay and do what I can." Jason offered. The woman looked between her two children before giving a sharp nod.

"Yes, that'd probably be for the best, thank you. Calling the police won't do too much good here though, let's just get out of here before they wake up."

"See! He's so much better than the Avengers!" The girl clamored, her steps bouncing her ahead of the little group as the family started moving out of the alley with Jason following along.

~x~

Jason opened the door of his safe house, mind still on the little family he had walked home. The little girl had never stopped bouncing around and asking him questions, completely ignoring the fact that she and her family had been attacked, and as they walked the little boy gained confidence too, coming out of his mother's shadow and joining his sister in interrogating him. If Jason were anyone else he would've called it adorable. The kids seemed set on the idea that he must be some type of superhero and that he was world's better than the Avengers. It wasn't till the kids mother spoke that he learned just how bad it was here, and just how little help people like the woman's family had.

Listening to their story, Jason had to do something. This city might not be his, but it deserved protecting too, and if the Avengers weren't going to do shit about it, then he would.

It was time Red Hood took to the streets.

* * *

A/N: So this took a while to write, but it's my longest chapter yet so hopefully that makes up for it! Hopefully you enjoyed this one as much as did and if you did, or didn't, please leave a review!


	8. Chapter 8: The Beginning of Busy Nights

A/N: So I decided to split this chapter up. This isn't all I have written right now, but this story/chapter ark is wanting to be both long and difficult to write so I can't tell you when the next chapter will be up. Hopeful you guys enjoy what I've got written! And if you do, a kudos and a review would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry if this chapter seems short because of that. X)

* * *

Previously:

Jason opened the door of his safe house, mind still on the little family he had walked home. The little girl had never stopped bouncing around and asking him questions, completely ignoring the fact that she and her family had been attacked, and as they walked the little boy gained confidence too, coming out of his mother's shadow and joining his sister in interrogating him. If Jason were anyone else he would've called it adorable. The kids seemed set on the idea that he must be some type of superhero and that he was world's better than the Avengers. It wasn't till the kids mother spoke that he learned just how bad it was here, and just how little help people like the woman's family had.

Listening to their story, Jason had to do something. This city might not be his, but it deserved protecting too, and if the Avengers weren't going to do shit about it, then he would.

It was time Red Hood took to the streets.

* * *

It had been a few weeks since the new player had arrived at the scene, and Officer Joshua Trollope still wasn't sure what to make of the guy. His mystery man was described by all the witnesses he could get to talk to him as tall, broad shouldered, incredibly skilled, and intimidating as hell in a red, skull like mask. The guy was obviously no amateur, but no one was quite sure where he came from or who he was; a guy with that kind of skill doesn't just magically appear overnight after all. The only idea Trollope could think of was that his description sounded an awful lot like the old pictures he'd seen of Red Skull in school, but that didn't make sense either, Red Skull had been killed during WW2: Captain America had put him down, everyone knew that. Though, they had thought the Captain had been dead too and now look at him; was it possible they were wrong? It didn't make much sense, but it would explain this new player. In any case, the man hadn't killed anybody yet, despite more than quite a few very convincing threats that Trollope didn't doubt the man would and could follow through on, and he was going to do his utmost to make sure it stayed that way.

The man, whoever he was, (Joshua had decided to call him Mr. E for the time being, at least in his head. (What can he say? He'd always been a of Scooby Doo when he was a kid.)), had been leaving them little, well, 'gift packages' was the best word for it he supposed, if groups of thrashed thugs hogtied together with enough evidence to put them in jail for a good while duct-taped to their foreheads could be called that. Really, he didn't know what to make of it. Joshua had seen many things growing up in one of the worse off parts of town, but this? This was definitely something new. Did this guy think he was some kind of vigilante or something? Or was he just a new player to the mob scene trying to get rid of his opponents? Clear the stage for his people, so to speak? Either way, there was a bulletin out for his arrest.

Still, Joshua couldn't help but think about it. The guys Mr. E was tagging some nights were people the police hadn't been able to touch, and now they had what they needed to put them away. Depending on what the guy's motives were, Joshua could see himself rooting for the guy, which was an even odder thought to him. A policeman rooting for a criminal, he'd never thought he'd see the day. Still, he'd been given the order to bring him in, and unless Mr. E gave him a good ass reason, that's exactly what he was planning on doing.

"Hey, Josh! Scruffy face! Get your ass out of the clouds!" His partner, Michael Conner, jested at him as the man plopped down a pile of paperwork beside of him. "Got more paperwork for the Red-Pain-in-the-Ass case."

Joshua groaned. He'd never forgive the asshole for all this paperwork though, even if Mr. E fucking caught them a Moriarty.

"That's just fucking lovely, I just finished the last load."

Michael gave him a smile with far too many teeth to be anything less than mocking him, and Joshua just groaned louder, trying to bury his face into the old oakwood of his desk as he did so, stretching his arms dramatically over it as well, just to make sure is partner saw his full displeasure at being handed even more fucking paperwork. Michael just laughed at the display and shoved the large pile in his face anyway. Joshua glared at it for a minute. 'Paper work's my fucking bane', he thought disgustedly, wishing he'd suddenly develop laser vision. After another minute of him giving the pile the worst looks he possibly could, he grudgingly sighed, sat up, and began his work.

"Fucking paperwork," he muttered angrily, while his partner laughed and started his own pile.

* * *

It had been three weeks since the night Jason decided to bring back Red Hood, and the first week of that had just been a whole lot of research and gaining his footing with New York's underground. By the end of the week Jason had a pretty damn good feel for the hierarchy there, and had started picking up all the evidence he could on some of the bigger dogs in the business. Along the way, Jason had hacked and taken money from five different local mob bosses to add to his personal funds, (he'd been running low), looked into a few more potential ways home(none of which were panning out the way he wanted them too,) and started cleaning up the streets, just like he'd promised himself for that little girl's family. Eating at Sophia's diner became a regular thing, surprisingly, but the place had decent food and having some type of routine was honestly kind of a comfort when the rest of the world he found himself in was still so foreign to him.

Tonight though, was going to be a bit different. Tonight, he was setting up to go after one of the top dogs in the gang world. They called themselves the Blood Wraiths, and though Jason usually didn't give a shit what they called themselves, he did care that they sold to children. Fucking kids! And that? That alone, got them on his hit list. It was high time that they learned, that all of the city's underbelly learned, that selling to kids would bring hell upon you and yours fast, and that hell- well, let's just say it wore a red helmet. This needed to end and while Hood had no delusions that it would end as soon as he entered the scene, he knew it would at least give it a kick up the ass in the right direct.

Hood had been scoping out the gang's activities and headquarters for the past three nights. He knew that the group's leaders would be there. From what he'd seen the heads of the gang almost never left this building, sending out their underlings to do their dirty work where it was needed, but the majority of those going in and out of the place were kids. Runners for the gang. Most of them, it seemed, were being coerced into it. The gang gave them a place to sleep, and more often than not, got them hooked on the stuff they were selling to get them to keep coming back, maybe gave them a small meal, scraps really, for when they did a good run. And if they tried to stop or get out of it? Well, let's put it this way, Hood had seen a few broken bones too many. All the kids there looked like skin and bone and bruises.

It quickly became obvious that the kids watched out for each other, made sure the smallest were healthy, took the hits for each other when they needed to, but there wasn't much the kids could do about the situation. Hood wanted to do something to change that, goddamn did he! He remembered being there, after his mom died. He remembered living on the streets in crappy conditions, and yeah, there were times when he had to do stuff he didn't want to just to get by. He remembered watching out for the smallest ones, even though it was Gotham, where every man was for themselves. Hell, maybe it was because it was Gotham, because they weren't supposed to make it, weren't supposed to be selfless, that they did it. As a giant 'screw you!' to the whole city, 'We, the street rats, the hooligans, the brats of Gotham's streets, we will make it.' That had been what they lived by. And oh yeah, there'd been the selfish ones, the ones who would ignore the others, who, to survive, decided to only care for themselves. There'd been plenty of those, more than plenty, but it didn't matter. Nor did it matter that the groups they banded together didn't always stick together, or that sometimes they weren't able to help the others, that sometimes, there was nothing they could do but stay alive themselves. When they could, they kept an eye out for others like them. You see another street rat lift food? You didn't see it, no sir-ee. That didn't mean they trusted each other, oooh no, trust didn't survive on Gotham's streets. But, when they could, they would, and that's all that mattered.

So Jason understood these kids, more than understood, he'd fucking been there, and he would do whatever he could to make sure those kids got to a better situation. He had made sure when he started looking into this job that if he took this gang out the kids would have somewhere to go. He knew there were plenty of 'shelters' for kids like them, but he also knew that some of those places could also be as bad as the streets. So he made sure to do his research, to find a place that would actually take proper care of them, to look into its employees and make sure they were safe. Once he'd found it, Jason needed to make sure the kids knew about it, knew they could go there and get help, and so he'd found one of the groups he knew were living in the gang's compound, and tonight he was going to get them to spread the word.

Hood was leaning over the fire escape in one of the alleyways he knew the kids would come down, making sure his body language read nothing but friendly. The alley was a bigger one as well, so the kids wouldn't feel cornered when he started talking. He knew he would need them to see that he could keep his promises though, and knew that to them, too friendly was almost always a bad sign; he'd have to be careful with this. For now though, he'd just have to wait.

* * *

It wasn't too much later that Hood heard footsteps and quiet voices echo across the pavement, growing louder as they neared the alley's mouth. Three kids turned the corner, all boys, skinny as sticks, and wearing ill-fitting clothing. Two of them seemed to be brothers, one much younger than the other, (and a head and a half shorter), but both with an uncanny resemblance to each other. They both had light brown hair the color of playground mulch that stuck up in every which way, blue-gray eyes, and the exact same button like nose. The younger of the two though, had inherited a dusting of freckles that decorated his face like a blush crossing his nose and covering both cheeks, while the older brother had only received a select number of them himself. The third boy had much darker features, with ebony hair that flopped down into his eyes which happened to be the deepest shade of brown Hood had ever seen. While the boy still had baby fat clinging to his cheeks, he also had high cheekbones and a sharp jaw. The boy was obviously much closer in age to the elder of the brothers than the youngest, with a long, lanky body to match.

"You know I want to get out of this just as much as you do, but we can't risk Jamie! He's too young and I can't risk him getting hurt, I promised Dad I'd protect him!' The Older brother spoke quietly, gesturing to the youngest boy as he did.

"I am not too young! I can take care of myself!" The youngest, who Hood was guessing was the Jamie the older boy was referring to, whined.

"I know damn well that we can't risk him, but we can't keep doing this Matt! If we wait any longer they'll be forcing him to do runs too, and that's even worse!" The third boy said, completely ignoring the youngest boy, who now stood between his brother and the other boy, vying for either's attention.

"And besides, what if we get caught? What we're doing is illegal, if we get arrested, we can't exactly protect him from inside a cell now can we?" The boy continued, swinging his arms around in vague hand gestures as he did.

"Damn it Julian! I know that! But they're not about to just let us go anytime soon! You saw what they did to Meg when she tried to run away! I can't let that happen to him!" The older brother, Matt apparently, scowled, though it didn't seem directed at his friend, more like it was directed at the whole situation the boys had found themselves in.

"Yeah, I know," The other boy, Julian, sighed, and ran a hand through his hair, both of them still ignoring the jumping boy between them, trying to gain their attention. And that, Hood decided was a good a time as any to break in.

"Looks like you boys could use a hand." All three of the boys startled, swinging around to face him, their expressions instantly turning suspicious as the older boys pushing the younger behind them.

"And who are you exactly?" Julian said warily.

"Me? I'm just someone who wants to take down the Blood Wraiths. Seems we're on the same page there. Maybe I can help you out."

"Why?" The older brother, Matt, asked narrowing his eyes at the Hooded figure.

"I have my reasons, same as you. Don't want you kids getting hurt though, maybe you could do me a favor-,"

"And why would we do that? Why should we trust you?" Matt interrupted. Hood chuckled, the kid reminded him of himself when he was on the streets.

"I'm not asking you to kid, not yet anyway. In two nights I'm going to attack the compound, you know where I'm talking about. All I'm asking you to do is to tell the other kids in there so you can bunker down before then, don't want you getting trapped in the crossfire if I can help it. I don't like seeing kids hurt, and I especially don't like gangs messing with them or sellin' that shit to them. You don't have to trust me on that, I know I wouldn't believe any of the shit coming out of my mouth when I was your age, but think about it. This gives you an opportunity to escape if you want, and if I don't pull through, well, you'll just be in the same position you're in now and you can go with whatever escape plan you kids were just discussing, no harm done. Make whatever decision you want, I'm not going to force you to do anything. If you do decide to trust me though, I know a place that can help you and all the other kids keep a roof over your head without being mixed up in gang business if you want it. If you decide you do, meet me back here at this same time the day after everything goes down and I'll give you the address. Whatever you decide, pass the word on, would you?"

The boys hesitated, but nodded nonetheless, passing this down the grapevine wasn't going to hurt them any, and if it got all of them out of harm's way, that'd be for the best. Plus, if they could trust this guy then they had their way out they'd been looking for, and a place to go afterwards.

"Good." Hood said, giving a nod, "Remember, in two days." and with that, he disappeared into the shadows, quickly climbing to the roof, keeping an ear out for what the boys said next.

"He's gone!" The youngest exclaimed, startled and wide eyed, "Where'd he go?!"

"Don't know, but it looks like this looks like it might just be our lucky day. Even if he doesn't bring them down, we'll have an out! This is what we've been waiting for!" Julian replied in a rushed, excited tone, Matt nodded along, a smile finding its way to his face.

"Come on, we've got to tell the others!" He said, grabbing the other two's arm's and running back out the alley. Seeing his work was finished here, Hood gave a content smirk before leaping to the next roof and taking off. This was not the end of his preparations after all.

* * *

The two days passed quickly, and soon Hood found himself perched on the building across the way from the compound, ready to go in. Hood knew that this job would be difficult, he might be a good fighter, but even he could get overwhelmed, and the Bloods Wraiths were by no means a small gang. So, the plan was to lure them out in small groups and take them out like that before heading in and dealing with the bosses. He had made sure to plant various distractions in places he'd mapped out, and a few extra ones just to be safe. With the kids out of the way, he'd be set to go guns blazing if he really needed to, though he was really hoping it wouldn't turn into a straight up firefight. While Hood did want attention on this, and word to spread of what he was doing, too much attention could still get him into quite a bit of trouble. He was fishing for bigger fish to fry, but he wasn't quite ready for the heavyweight yet, there were another dozen traps to lay before he was ready for that.

It was looking like the kids had done their part, as not one person under the age of twenty was in sight, and that meant it was time for the fun to start. So with that, Red Hood began to enter the compound.

* * *

A/N:So, Joshua and Michael are OC's of mine. They should have a relatively small part in the story, (unless you guys really like them, and then I'm willing to have them show up more) but I needed to establish what Jason's been up to w/o going into too much detail and boring you and I thought getting an outside POV for that would be for the best. Joshua already has a backstory for this, & I'm debating having Iris (who I also gave a real quick back story) show up more as well. I can see her & the diner being a sort of comfort/support for Jason. My thoughts being when you're in a completely foreign place, you tend to latch on one place and make that familiar/safe ground and I think the diner would become that for Jason (though it would definitely start as just a nice place to get food). It won't be coming up too much (only every once in awhile,) but unless all of you are completely against that, that's what I'm going with. X)

If you guys would tell me your opinions on that I'd be grateful, so please! Leave a review!


	9. Chapter 9: Time to be a Badass

A/N: Okay!, I'm so sorry guys! This took me for-freaking-ever! This chapter was a beast to write and writers block and life being craziness didn't help at all! But, in exchange, this is the longest chapter by FAR! (Like, it's at LEAST 5,000 more words than normal!) So that should make up for it. And if it doesn't, too bad, I worked my ass off for this. Anyway! Figured I should give all of you out there a refresher, it's been a while.

Summary: Ok, so what's happened so far in this story is: Jason got shot by a special gun that took him to the MCU (everyone back home thinks he's dead, there's a story about that (it's called Red Hood meets Marvel-DC's POV if you're curious)), Jason finds a place temporarily, finds out about the avengers at a diner, and looks for more info on them through breaking into the SHIELD base, later he goes for a walk to clear his head and process all this info and vent his frustration about not being able to get home, on this walk he rescues a family from being attacked and through this comes to realize the Avengers do shit to protect their city on a local level, so he takes up the challenge. Time passes and we see that he has been busy and Joshua Trollope and Michael Conner ( who are policemen just to be clear) were given his case and tasked to bring him in. Jason, meanwhile, has decided to take down a gang that involves children (to a very negative affect), and meets with three children(two brothers and their friend, older brother name's Matt, younger is Jamie, and the friend Julian, just so you won't get confused when they come up later) to warn them to get out of there while he takes the gang down, and him about to bust in on the gang is where we left off.

And that's everything you need to know for this chapter and hopefully it jogged your memory if I forgot anything. Aside from that, read and enjoy! (And also, please review, it's what motivates me to get this story done, and that is really helpful!)

* * *

Chapter 9:Time to be a Bad Ass

The compound that the gang had set up in was in actuality an old hotel that the gang had renovated to suit their own purposes. The hotel itself had four stories, the top three for housing and the bottom for entertainment, dining, and work purposes. There were four doors on the bottom floor leading in, two in the lobby in the front of the building, one in the very back through the kitchens, and a side door that lead to the meeting rooms where the gang was storing drugs. Four men, with more guarding the side hallway that led to the storage rooms, guarded the side door and nine men were in the lobby. Whether they were on break or actually guarding the place was questionable though, as looking through the windows of the lobby, three men sat at the hotel's bar drinking and chatting, while another group had collected around the couches in the lobby's center and looked like they were playing cards, and two more men lounged on the hotel's previous information counter closest to the entrances laughing with each other rambunctiously. The kitchens were only guarded by two men though, and while it was in the very back of the building and the only way up to the upper floors where Hood knew the gang's heads were hidden away was through the lobby in the very front of the hotel, it was looking like the kitchens would be his way in. Besides, his goal in this wasn't just to take out this gang; this was a show of power. Taking out the Blood Wraiths would be an example to any others Hood was going to have to deal with. What better show of power than to take out a whole gang in its home base?

Hood silently dropped down into the back alley the kitchen door opened to, knocking out the two guards within seconds with swift nerve strikes to the neck. They wouldn't be up anytime soon, Hood knew, and after checking that no one had heard him, Hood swiftly picked the door's lock and stepped inside with inaudible steps. Long metal tables set up in three rows filled the kitchen, each holding their own oven and sink, and a large refrigerator sat humming in the room's far corner. Pots and pans and other cooking utensils filled the countertops, and dishes were piling up in the sinks. The room itself was empty of anyone besides Hood-, though it seemed that was about to change.

As Hood heard loud voices approaching he quickly ducked behind one of the counters and waited for the two men to enter the room or pass it. As the voices approached their words became clearer as well.

"-heard those kids messed up on their last run. Took too long. How much you wanna bet the bosses mess them up?" One of the voices said in a deep base tone. The second voice chuckled, an annoying nasally sound.

"I ain't takin' that bet. There's no way in all hell he ain't gonna do it, and you know it. They'll be lucky if they can move tomorra after the bosses are done with 'em." The first voice laughed in response, and the kitchen doors squeaked as the two men entered, their footsteps loud on the linoleum floor, and Hood snuck closer, waiting for them to pass before he attacked.

"That's true. Reckon it'll get their asses moving next time they're given a run though." With that, the men passed him on their way to the fridge, and Hood leapt out of his hiding spot. The first man went down with a hard punch to the temple that knocked him unconscious, and the second quickly spun around with a loud exclamation of shock, tripping over himself in his alarm, trying to back away from the sudden attack. A simple roundhouse kick was all it took to take him down, and with both of them out for the count, Hood slipped back into the alley and dragged in the two men he'd left behind, dragging them and the two most recent additions to unconsciousness into the corner behind the refrigerator where no one just walking by would see them. Tying them up and slapping a piece of duct tape across their mouths only took a minute more.

Their conversation worried him though, it sounded like there were still a couple of kids in the building, and if they were where he thought they were, then they'd be in immediate danger. If he was right, Hood might have to have a slight change of plan. He was already planning on sneaking around, but with a group of kids in the hands of Blood Wraith's heads he couldn't take some of the risks he'd been planning on taking before.

Cursing his luck, Hood edged open the kitchen door and made sure it was all clear before creeping out. Immediately to his left was a storage closet, locked securely and almost definitely storing a number of guns and other weapons. Breaking the lock was one of the easier things he had planned for tonight, and after raiding their supplies, (extra guns were always a plus, and the bazooka was a nice touch, though where they'd gotten that was a mystery), he continued down the currently empty hall.

Further ahead, to his left was a windowed room that housed gym equipment, a decent sized pool, and nine goons. Hood could probably sneak past them, but if something happened that drew their attention once he was further on, he didn't want to be overwhelmed by their added numbers. So, making sure both of the room's doors were secure and they couldn't escape, Hood slid in a little gift for them and continued down the hallway, ignoring the abrupt, but quickly fading, noises of hysteria and panic issuing from the room behind him. Knockout gas was one of his more useful trinkets.

The hallway took a sharp turn to the right, leading to a door that opened into the dining hall of the hotel, but Hood knew for a fact that the room had two doors, one here and one further on, (he had done his research before coming here, the blueprints were pretty easy to find), and so he wrapped a chain around the doors handles, preventing anyone from escaping through that door, and continued down the hall, which had straightened back out, with a side hallway to the meeting rooms where they stored the drugs to his left, and the dining hall's second door further down and to his right. Hood silently took the left hall, checking the rooms in it for more guards, silently taking them out without any fuss, and making sure to take pictures of the gang's illegal activities as evidence for the police, before moving back to the dining hall's other door. Peeking in he counted six men in the room either simply talking or eating, but all were visibly armed.

'Good' Hood thought to himself smirking. The dining hall was close enough to the lobby that the people inside would be heard if he dropped in another round of knockout gas, but that worked to his favor. The goons closest to him in the lobby would surely come to check it out, and all he had to do was wait and surprise them. The others in the lobby would either investigate if they didn't come back or ignore it, but either way it would lessen their numbers.

So, he silently opened the door a little wider and rolled in the gas, closing and barricading the door after he was done, and quickly hiding in the hallways shadows as he waited for the guards to come. Just as he predicted, two came running, their attention immediately drawn to the door. As soon as they got close enough, he leapt out and grabbed them both by the neck, quickly and effectively knocking their heads together hard enough for them to be knocked out with a headache he didn't want to even think about.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" A voice cried out from behind him, and Hood whipped around to see a man frozen in shock standing behind him, the man's hands partially raised instinctively to ward Hood off.

"Shit." Hood cursed, already in motion to take the guy out with a kick. The man went down quickly, but the alarm had already been raised. Time to go in guns blazing then.

Taking a breath as he drew his guns, Hood leapt into the lobby, already shooting. The six men who had remained in the lobby were in various states of motion, nearly all of them were standing with weapons drawn, and two were halfway across the room to him already, with another close behind. The two closest dropped quickly, having no time to evade his bullets, but the third's own shots forced him to drop into a roll, bringing him closer and allowing him to pop up and smash the butt of his gun on the man's temple. Using the man as a shield for the second, he raised his other arm and shot at the three behind the man. The first one he shot at dropped like a weight, ('must'a rolled bad initiative, that guy,' a stray thought flitted through Hood's mind), but the other two proved more difficult, as they dove behind the bar they had previously been sitting at for cover. Cursing again as the two began shooting back at him, Hood swiftly dropped his meat shield and took cover behind the couches in the center of the room.

The seconds passed ever so slowly as Hood waited for one of them to run out of bullets before he leaped over the couch and charged the bar, dodging the man's bullets who had yet to run out as he listened to the other curse as he tried to reload his gun. It wasn't sounding like that was working out for him very well. Going for the man with a still firing gun, Hood yanked the weapon out of the man's hand, turning his arm as he did and using it to elbow the man in the face, knocking him out. Turning to the last man, he was greeted by a wild punch that was quickly ducked, and using the motion, he kicked out a leg and spun, swiftly tripping the man, causing him to fall back and hit his head, lights out. Hood released a breath as he stood and quickly scanned the room. Once seeing that the room's only inhabitants were either dead to the world, (though in this case, not actually dead,) and himself, he gave a satisfied nod, and moved on to the elevators, stepping over the body of the last man as he did.

Whistling merrily, he pressed the elevator button and waited, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he did. When it arrived, the elevator's doors slid open with a horrible screeching noise and 'ding' that must have been in minor, for all it's creepy, off key-ness. Stepping into the elevator was no better, as he was immediately accosted with fugly wallpaper and even more horrible elevator music. 'What the fuck?' Hood thought to himself, jerking back in surprise, and scowling at the small space, 'Why the hell would a gang have elevator music?! How many places even have elevator music nowadays anyway? The last time I heard this shit was in one of the buildings with Brucie's asinine meet 'n greets with other rich assholes. The rest of the world's moved on.' Still, Hood took a tentative step inside, warily letting the doors slide close behind him, closing off the image of the havoc he'd wreaked as the admittedly sketchy elevator jerked into motion.

Hood knew that the firefight he had just got out of would attract attention, (it was a crappy hotel, walls were thin), and that an elevator coming up right after would raise even more eyebrows, so after getting rid of the speaker with the horrendous music, he jumped up to the roof of the elevator, and waited.

And when the elevator doors below him screeched open with an off key 'ding!', he was proven right as three men stalked in guns raised. Waiting for the last one to step in, Hood dropped down, kicking two in the head one after the other, knocking them out and sending the second catapulting into the third, knocking him down and making it easy to smash his lights out with a simple punch. Cleaning out floor's two and three was easy after that, no one was expecting him, and there were less guards, and so, after gathering all the evidence he needed for the police to keep these assholes jailed, he moved up to the final floor.

Once again the doors screeched open, but this time it was to a more open space, filled with windows. A bar sat forward and to his left, and to his far left was a lounge area facing the windows looking out at the street behind him, and the room turned into a hallway about two thirds of the room over to his left, guarded by two men. With a clear line of sight it was unavoidable that the guards would see him, but Hood walked out calmly anyway, and as expected, the guards immediately straightened up and pointed their guns at him.

"Hey!" The nearest guard called out in a growling tone, "You there, stop where you are!"

But Hood didn't even hesitate in his next step, bringing him closer to the bar and the guards on the other side of it. There was the distinctive click of a gun's safety being removed as he stepped closer, but no sound left Hood's lips as they curved into a smirk hidden by his helmet, nor did he stop moving.

"We're warning you! Back off cosplayer!" The second man called, but Hood ignored him.

With his next step he was next to the bar's middle stool, and in half a second he had pulled it out and launched it at the guards, using it to draw their fire as he charged them. The first one crashed back into the wall behind him as the stool hit him, and the second was brought down as Hood yanked the gun out of the man's hands causing him to fall forward, and then, changing the direction of his force, Hood used the guard's own gun to nail the guy in the head. Spinning around to kick the first man in the head before he could get up again, Hood turned back to the hallway they had previously been guarding just in time. His little scuttle with the guards had attracted attention down the hall, and two groups were running down the hall to greet him, the first group practically upon him with four goons, and one further down the hall with two more. Lucky for him, the hallway worked in his favor, it wasn't wide enough for them to step past and surround him, and only two could fight him at once.

Hood drew a breath before diving once more into the fight before him, dodging a strong punch from the ruffian in front of him, before shooting out a hand to grab the man's fist and using it to unbalance him, punching the man in the face with a vengeance. The thug fell easily, but left Hood to dodge the foot of the next one, forcing him to knock it to the side as he leapt out of the way. He shot out a fist and clobbered the goon in the sternum, causing them to stumble back into the dolt behind them, coughing and sucking in air wildly; but by then Hood was already whirling and slamming a elbow into the temple of the man of the other side of the hallway, immediately knocking him out.

"Ah, the repetitiveness of fighting goons," Hood said, smirk in his voice as he turned to the next two, one hand up defensively and the other drawing one of his guns from it's holster, "Least it's a good warm up!" He said with a smug laugh as the men in front of him growled and launched themselves at him.

Hood dodged their first two punches before countering their attack with a swift kick to the gut of one, and a rubber bullet shot at the other with deadly accuracy, moving with the guns recoil to dodge the kick the second had thrown at him. The second man crumpled to ground, but the first had recovered his breath from Hood's blow and was moving to throw another punch. Hood didn't give him the chance, swinging his hand with the gun still in it and smashing the butt of it into the side of the man's jaw, knocking him out as well.

By this time, the two men who'd been at the other end of the hallway had reached him, their guns drawn and raised, but as their allies hadn't allowed them to safely get a shot in, they had gone unused. Now with a clear window, they began to shoot. Hood had no other option but to charge them, with no cover in the hall to give him protection from the bullets and nowhere else to go, letting off his own rounds as he did. One fell before he reached them from the onslaught of bullets, but Hood in exchange took a bullet to the shoulder, and though it was luckily stopped by his armor, Hood could already feel it beginning to bruise. Reaching the second man, Hood used the wall to bounce off and crash a fist down on the man's skull, bringing him down as well.

For a moment, there was silence, the only sound Hood's heavy breaths, and everything stood still. Sadly that moment was cut short as a door on Hood's right swung open with a yell.

"What the hell is going out here?! What, are you dunderheads practicing for an 'invas-'?!" The incredulous cry tampered off for a second, but that was all Hood needed to swing around and aim his gun, the man already falling before he could finish his next thought. Again there was a split second of silence before startled, angry shouts sprouted from the room the man had stepped out of.

Quickly, Hood stepped up to the door, using it as cover, and scanning the room he raised his gun once more to shoot the men inside. Looking in, Hood saw a long meeting table, though only four men stood in the room, their weapons drawn and approaching the door. Hood immediately recognized three of the men as the gang's lieutenants, and the last one, coming around from the end of the table, as one of the gang's three leaders, Derrick Pierce. Hood didn't wait longer than that though, taking aim with his weapon and taking down two men before they even thought about taking cover, hitting the shoulder of the third man as he ducked behind the table. The third man, who happened to be Pierce, yelled, hand clutching his shoulder, but sadly, Hood wasn't given the chance to finish him off as the last Lieutenant retaliated.

Hood took cover behind the wall of the doorway for a few precious seconds to avoid the rain of bullets before returning the volley with his own shots. The last lieutenant went down just as Pierce raised his wounded arm to fire at Hood himself, but that itself lead to the mob boss' loss, as the wound caused his aim to be off and gave Hood a chance to shoot the gun right out of his hand sending the weapon flying across the room. In that instant the room stood frozen, the unconscious bodies of the man's lieutenants laying across the floor as Pierce knelt whimpering behind the table, Hood's gun pointed to his head, loaded and a twitch away from firing. But the thing was, Hood came here to make a statement, and someone had to know what that statement was for it to spread, so despite wanting to put a bullet between the man's slimy eyeballs, Hood walked over, and knelt in front of him as the man fell on his butt frozen in place by the gun still trained on him.

"Why hello Mr. Pierce! Fancy seeing you here." Hood began, the menacing smile that spread across his lips audible in his voice. "Such a pleasant surprise! You know, I've been meaning to have a word with you. And I invaded this building and took down all the men in it to do so. You see, I don't give a damn that you deal in drugs; don't give a damn that you screw over people's lives. They are adults, they can make that choice, and I'm not going to stop them from fucking up their own lives. No, what I care about is that you involve kids. They don't have a choice in this, and you fuck them up from the very start, you don't give them a chance. That's what I care about. And that is why I'm doing this, taking your little gang and ripping them to shreds. So here's the deal, I leave you alive, mostly in good shape, and you spread the word to back off the kids, quit involving them in gang business, and quit dealing to them. And if you refuse, I'll break every bone in your body. And then you will spread the word. No one's allowed to touch the kids. And if I ever hear of anyone doing any of that shit? I will do way worse than this. They will fucking mourn the day they crossed me, you got it Asshat?" The villain shivered, a low whine escaping him but said nothing.

"Well? Do I need to break some bones?" Hood growled, his voice going lower and a definite snarl could be heard in it. This caused the man to violently shake his head, a broken record of "NO!".

"Good!" Hood said, voice going back to the lighter tone he'd used before as he flipped the gun in his hand around and swung it at the side of the man's head, letting him fall limply to the floor as Hood stood and left the room.

'Well that was fun,' Hood thought to himself as he kicked the man in the doorway back inside and closed the door behind him, (Alfred had gotten annoyed with him when he first moved in the Manor as he would always leave all the Manor doors open, but after enough 'Young-Master-Jason! You-were-never-raised-on-a-barn, I-believe-it's-time-you-acted- like-it!' -'s, it became ingrained in him wherever he went, no matter who he went as, Jason Todd or Red Hood, to shut the door behind him.). 'Let's see what's in the next room.'

The next two room's Hood checked on the left side of the hall both came up empty, but as Hood still hadn't seen anything that matched what he overheard from the first two guards he'd taken down in the building, he had a very strong feeling that last room wouldn't be. Which meant that the last two bosses, Monica Bordalace and Reim Saham, and the kids would most likely be in this one with at least a couple more goons. Either that, or he'd missed something very important. But he decided to ignore the side of his brain that was attempting to be more pessimistic. This was the right room. (Probably).

So, reloading his guns, he took a breath, and kicked in the last door, guns at the ready.

And what do you know? Five goons, one on either side of the door he knocked down, and three more picking on the kids in the room, two lieutenants standing behind the two mob bosses sitting on a leather couch, with four kids in front of said couch, looked up at him with wide eyes, frozen in place for a second, forming a perfect tableau of surprise. (Ha! He was right! See! Fuck you pessimistic side!)

A beautiful tableau that gave him ample time to shoot the three fuckers who'd been messing with the kids in the head with his rubber bullets, throw an elbow to the temple of the idiot to his left, and when they finally got into motion, duck the punch of the man to his right, before slamming a fist, gun included, into the man's dick (the man stood by while the others attacked children, he deserved it), making him crumple with a sharp cry of pain before with another quick jab to the neck, the goon was out like a light. As soon as the man was down Hood spun around guns raised to the remaining four gang members in the room, who'd by now raised their own guns, freezing all of them into a temporary stalemate.

Slowly, Hood stood from the crouch he'd ducked into, eyes never wavering from the I.W.G. (idiots with guns) in front of him, and began to carefully move to a better position to protect the kids from.

"You kids okay?" Hood asked quietly as he moved between them and the gang's last standing members.

"Been better. We were beginning to think we evacuated everyone and gotten in trouble for it all for nothing. For the record though, still don't trust you." Hood's heart sank for a minute at the familiarity of the voice, and he risked a quick glance over. It was the boys; the same Hood had talked to, plus one extra. A girl, a little older than the oldest brother's age, pixie cut charcoal black hair, baggy clothes, and asian eyes, but that was all the information his quick glance afforded him.

"I wouldn't believe you if you said you did, kid. But I promise you this, I'm going to get you out of here, you'll be alright."

"Well, your word better mean something or else when we get out of this I will do my damned best to make your life hell." The girl said. Hood laughed.

"Already been there kid, but I like your spunk."

"Name's Cleo. Don't call me kid."

"You got it kid."

"You want me to punch you."

"Not so much when we're in a stalemate with guns involved, no."

"Would you two kindly shut up?!" One of the mob bosses, Bordalace, interrupted, a growl in her taut voice. "Now, who the hell are you, and how the fuck did you get in here?!"

"Oh it was pretty easy, your security was a piece of shit, dealt with your friend Pierce, left him a message to pass along when he wakes up. Guess I should share with the crowd though, the more messengers the better. Don't mess with me, or the ones I protect. And that means no dealing with, or to kids. If I catch you doing it, I'll make all your lives feel like a worse punishment than any you'll feel in hell. Got it?"

Bordalace and Saham laughed, causing a chain reaction with the men behind them, before Saham replied.

"And why should we believe you? You couldn't have taken everyone in this building down, it's impossible. Even if you got to Derrick, he's a moron anyways. You'd think for as good a strategist as the man is he'd remember to take his guards with him when he goes out, it's no wonder you got the jump on him. And besides, Skull face, you're outnumbered here, you can't do shit against us. I. Don't. Buy. It."

"Ah ah ah! You grossly underestimate me. Besides, do you really want to try it? A bullet between your eyes would really ruin your complexion."

The man hesitated, his thick eyebrows furrowing together to meet above the bridge of his too large nose as he glared at Hood, Bordalace glancing over at him in silent question. The man growled.

"What do you want?"

Hood smiled beneath his mask.

"Simple. I already said didn't I? All I want-"

BOOM!

An explosion went off, pushing Hood, and everyone else for that matter, off their feet and flying. Stumbling to stand, ears ringing, Hood turned to see one of the goons guarding the door he'd taken down earlier had recovered and snuck over to a weapons closet only to shoot the rocket launcher he'd picked out into the wall behind himself in a move of absolute idiocy. Of course, Hood didn't have long to take it all in, there were at least two gang members far enough away from the blast that were uninjured enough they used the blast as a way to break the stalemate despite their own ringing eardrums.

Hood returned a few of his own bullets, but a quick glance down was the only reminder he needed of his number one priority, the kids safety. They were just barely beginning to sit up, and he saw at least a dozen cuts from shrapnel across the four of them that he'd only skipped out on because of his armor. He had to get them out here; that explosion meant the room was rapidly becoming covered in flame and the rain of bullets didn't exactly make it any safer. A glance behind him showed shattered floor to ceiling windows and a nice, safe, not flaming, building sitting across the way.

Moving quickly, Hood grabbed the kids, ignoring their weak protests entirely, and dragged them to cover behind a damaged couch that had been the only thing between them and the window before, but for now acted like cover from the onslaught of bullets. Moving as quickly as his spinning head would let him, he grabbed his grappling hook from his belt and fired it across the way, tying the end of it to the leg of the heavy couch behind him, before turning back to the kids with him.

"Okay, so here's what's going to happen. We're going to get out of here, but I need you to work with me. I've shot a grapple across and it's going to act like a zipline to get you to the next roof, you got it? I can carry one of you but more than that would be too risky."

"Umm, that wire doesn't look like you'd zip across it, more like one of those lines you balance across and I ain't doing that shit!" The girl, Cleo, replied.

"Well it's what we have to work with." Hood replied calmly. "We'll have to go down a little and then across, but no matter what I'm not letting you fall. Now come on, before they get brave."

"Before they get Brave?! You're nuts!" The brother's friend exclaimed.

"Probably. But right now I'm saving your life, so work with me here!"

The kids grumbled, but with the threat of bullets and fire at their back, they followed him as he crawled over to the open window the line went through, and clipped a handle to it.

"Who's first?" Hood asked turning back to them, and for a minute they all froze in fear before one of the boys, the brother's friend put on a brave face.

"Me. I guess." The boy said and Hood nodded and gestured him forward.

"Okay, sit on the edge and get a good grip on the handle. I won't let go till you say okay, okay?" The boy, who Hood reminded himself name was Julian, nodded, and gulping, did as Hood asked.

"You good kid?" Julian nodded. "Okay then, this is what you're going to do. You're going to push off when you're ready, and hold on as tight as you can. When you get to the other side, put your feet done as soon as you can and run off the momentum to slow it down. Don't want you coming to a stop by slamming into a wall, now do we? You got it?"

The kid took and breath and nodded again before looking back at his friends with a reassuring smile before pushing off with a yell. Hood watched and waited as the kid made it safely to the other side, landing with a victorious yell and a hysterical laugh. Nodding, Hood looked back at the kids with him.

"Okay, who's next? Same thing." Looking at them Hood could tell they were still scared, very much so, but seeing that their friend had made it reassured them. Looking past the kids though, he saw the goons getting braver, and for that matter, curious, and poking their heads out from behind cover, so he quickly shot a rounds their way to discourage them before turning back to the kids.

"I'll go." Cleo said firmly, scooting up to the line and taking the next handle from Hood, before taking a breath and pushing off herself with a yelp as she fell a little ways before the line caught her and sent her on her way. When she too safely made it to the other side, Hood turned to the brothers waiting with him, who quite frankly looked terrified, even after watching the others make it.

"Hey, you're going to be okay, kid." Hood said to the older brother, (Matt, wasn't it?). "Ten second trip and you're safe. I'll take your little brother, so you don't have to worry about him. But I need you to be brave. Any second now they're going to notice what we've done and I can guarantee you they'll be none too happy with it, so we need to hurry." The boy nodded glumly, but moved up and took the next handle from him, and after three deep calming breaths, he pushed off too, and safely made it to the next building.

Unfortunately, just as the boy had set his feet on the next roof was when the goons noticed what was happening and the gig with up with an angry yell.

"Hey! They're escaping!"

"Well then what are you waiting for you dolts?! Stop them!"

"Welp! That's our signal!" Hood said, scooping up the boy next to him and grabbing the last handle with a quick glance over his shoulder, he pushed over the ledge. The boy in his arms screamed and clung to him as tightly as a boa constrictor as they fell and a yelp escaped Hood as well when with a lurch all his weight and another's were put on his injured arm, but Hood refused to let go and tightened his grip despite his pain. Behind him he heard the angry yells and gunfire of the goons they'd left behind, but he did his best to ignore them as they came to a stop on the next roof.

"You made it!" One of the boys cheered, Hood was too distracted between the pain in his shoulder and the gunfire behind them to tell which.

"Sure did! Now, get to cover! They're still shooting at us!"

"There's a fire escape on the other side of this building! Come on!" Cleo answered gleefully.

"Well let's get a move on then!"

And with that, they took off, the kids cheering and laughing happily at their escape, and Hood chuckling at their antics. They got three blocks away before they finally slowed to a stop, the kids laughing through their heavy breaths.

"We did it. We actually did it!" Cleo muttered in awe.

"You actually did it." Hood agreed amusedly, and Cleo snapped her attention back to him with the words, her expression turning contemplative.

"You kept your word. That's the first time an adult actually done that with me. Guess I won't be bringing down Hell on you then. " Hood laughed.

"First time for everything."

"And a last." She answered, and from her expression, Hood could tell she didn't expect him to continue the trend. Hood, no Jason, understood that though, he'd grown up on the streets, promises weren't kept and trust got you hurt. But still seeing it in the young face in front of him made him sad.

"Well, this won't be the last time. Because I promised the boys a safe place for any of the kids involved in that gang if they wanted it, and I still fully intend to keep that promise. There's a house, down between Corona Avenue and 108th Street, which will take anyone in that needs help without question. No one working there has any gang associations, and all are qualified caregivers. They can help you if you need it. It's safe. And if you ever have problems there, or anywhere, you call me and I will come. Because I want to be damn sure to keep this promise and I'm not going to let it break over variables I can't control." Jason said, digging out a burner phone from his belt and handing it to them. "My number's the only one in here, so you can't miss it."

Cleo took the phone slowly, looking between it and him, before finally nodding and pocketing it.

"Okay. I'll trust you for now. But you have to give me something to work with first."

"Deal. What is it?"

"What's your name? Your real name, I mean. I know guys like you don't like to give it out all too much."

Jason laughed and nodded, taking off his helmet and tucking it under his arm before putting out his hand to shake in mock greeting.

"Name's Jason. Go by Red Hood when I'm wearing the helmet though."

"No fair! You're still wearing a mask!" The youngest exclaimed, but Jason just smirked and waved him off.

"No last name, mask boy?" Cleo asked.

"You asked for my real name, Jason is my real name. What you should've asked was for my whole name." He replied with a smirk. She glared at him for minute, but smiled all the same.

"Fair's fair, I guess." She glanced over her shoulder back in the direction of the hotel they'd escaped, though they no longer could see it. "We should leave, I don't want to be anywhere near here when the cops come to check on that fire. Thanks for your help getting us out of there, but yeah."

Hood nodded in understanding.

"Go, get out of here. I need to go back anyway, got some evidence for the police to keep those guys in jail."

"You really went the whole nine yards didn't you?" The older brother, Matt, asked, but Jason just smiled in reply, and waved them goodbye before turning and starting the walk back.

~x~

It was almost the end of his shift when Joshua Trollope got the call that there'd been a sighting of Mr. E, and so he and his partner hopped in their squad car and drove to the abandoned, but suspected to house the Blood Wraiths, Overlook hotel.

"Think we'll finally catch him?" Michael asked from his seat at the steering wheel, eyes still focused on the road as he drove them down the crowded city streets.

"Catch him? Don't you think your getting ahead of yourself, Mikey? We haven't even actually seen him yet. He might not even be there." Joshua replied teasingly, though his skepticism was evident in his voice. Michael glared at him.

"First off, stop it with the shitty nicknames. Mikey, really?" He exclaimed, turning in his seat and waving his hands at Joshua as they came to a stop under a red light. It was an old argument, and both of them knew it wasn't really Joshua antagonizing anyone, just a bit of levity with a good natured ribbing. "Second, this comes from a good source, I know the guy who gave us the tip. He's a good guy, trustworthy, even if he is a bit shady. If this idiot vigilante fucking exists, he'll be there. Third, maybe this guy has some skills, but he's still an amateur, he's been pulling this shit less than a month. No one knows how to do this shit in less than a month, I don't care how much training the got before they hit the 's a reason all the rookie's aren't allowed on their own and you know it. Kid should leave it to the real cops before he gets someone hurt, or worse, dead. We'll catch him."

"This 'kid' has been solving our cases for us, cases our best men couldn't 'cause they couldn't get the evidence to bag the shit heads, and wrangling them up for us himself. I wouldn't call that amateur, Michael." Joshua bit back, but his partner just laughed, turning back to the road as the light turned green and he turned left.

"Kid got lucky. He's still an amateur. But from the sounds of it- Hey fuck you car! I have the right of fucking way! Shithead!" Michael paused, road rage interrupting his sentence, though it quickly calmed to angry mumblings.

"You were saying?" Joshua prompted him, and with an absent minded glance back over at him, Michael got back to his thought.

"Oh, right. Meant to say it sounds like you'd rather shake the kid's hand than jail him. Sounds like I should be worried. Like the kid might be stealin' my partner." His partner teased, but Joshua just gave an amused chuckle.

"No way in hell. I mean, I might respect the guy if his motives are what I suspect them to be, but I'm still going to jail him. It seems to me he's trying to help clean up the city, he's just going about it the wrong way. Might make a good cop if that's the truth, actually," Joshua muttered as an afterthought, before finishing thought at his previous volume. " The point is, he still needs to learn his lesson, and jail can do that." Joshua watched as his partner examined him for a second, before turning back to the road as he turned them down an alleyway shortcut.

"And what'll you do if this guy's really the Red Skull like they think he is?"

Joshua thought for a moment, gazing out the window at the passing buildings, people, and cars without really seeing any of them.

"If this guy is really the Red Skull, there's no way in hell he's done this for the good of others, it would all have to be a ploy to push his own agenda, and that agenda would be detrimental to all of us. If it's true, as soon as he pulls a gun on us and there's probable cause, there'll be a bullet between his eyes." Michael nodded at that.

"Good."

After that the ride was quiet for a good while, till with a blaze of thrumming lights and sound a fire truck rushed past them, turning into their lane as they did.

"What the hell?! Wonder where they're going." Michael said, leaning over the wheel to watch as they passed.

"Dunno, but it looks like we're headed the same way." Joshua replied, looking down on the gps lighting up his phone. Michael glanced over with a frown before looking back ahead to the road.

~x~

When they arrived it became very clear why they'd been following fire trucks and ambulances the whole way over, the old hotel was lit up like a torch. Joshua stood frozen in shock looking up at it next to his open car door, his partner on the other side doing the same.

"What was that you said about if he was here we'd catch him? Cause I'm pretty sure that's a pretty darn clear sign we've missed him." Joshua said quietly, still gaping at the inferno in front of him.

"Shut up" His partner grumbled, and for a moment, that seemed like that was all there was to it. They'd go back to the station and start the search all over again tomorrow. But to their surprise, a deep throaty chuckle came bellowing from behind them. And upwards.

They both whirled around, and there he was. Mr. E. The guy they'd been chasing after for weeks now, red skull-like face, tough, brown leather jacket, the black body armor underneath with a red bat insignia painted on it, (though what meaning the symbol held, neither of them knew), weapons held in straps at waist and thighs, and dark jeans tucked into military grade boots. Sitting on a streetlight. Kicking his legs back and forth.

"Nah, you didn't miss me. I've been waiting for you." The man's words brought them out of their reverie and they quickly drew their weapons, but the man merely laughed.

"And why would you do that?" His partner growled.

"Well, you might've noticed the flaming hotel behind you. What you might not've known about that hotel, was that that was the headquarters of a gang known as the Blood Wraiths, and well, let's just say they were on my bad side. None of them should be dead if you're wondering, though a few of them have a message to pass on. Nah, they were all unconscious last I checked, and the fire was their own doing so I can't be blamed for that if it does get to them. Though that's not what you were asking was it? No. The reason I stuck around was I have some dirt on them for you. Just enough to keep them in jail a good long while. Don't want any of them sneaking their way free around all of your red tape."

"Why are you doing this? Who are you?" Joshua asked, because really, those were the important questions, the ones that would tell him everything he really needed to know.

"Why am I doing this, you ask? Oh that's simple. That gang involved kids. Dealt to them, fucked them up early, and I don't stand for that. Never have. And I plan on putting a stop to it in this city."

"Fancy words for someone just blowing up shit," Michael commented from next to him, and the man on the light post leaned forward, and even from way up there it felt like he was right next to them, looming over them threateningly.

"Doing a bit more than just blowing shit up, Bub. You don't know the half of it, so don't go sticking your ill informed nose where it isn't needed."

"Ill informed nose? Ill informed nose!?" Michael cried, incredulous. "You're the one with the fucking ill informed nose! You run around without knowing any of the shit us cops have going on, without any of our training, and you have the nerve to call us ill informed?! You're going to get someone killed you Asshat!"

This time though, instead of reacting to Michael's barb, the man, Mr. E, laughed it off, undeterred by the man's rant. But Joshua on the other hand was still calm where his partner was red faced and their suspect was distracted, and he was still waiting for the other half of his question to be answered, though he didn't know whether he could believe the answer would be honest or not.

"You never answered my question, who are you?" Joshua asked calmly with the level head that his partner knew him well for.

"Hmm? No, it doesn't seem I did. My name's Red H-"

Boom!

Behind them an explosion went off as the fire in the hotel reached something, though for the life of him Joshua couldn't tell you what it would have to have been for it to make that kind of sound. Either way, the sound startled both himself and his partner into ducking behind the doors of their car, hands automatically reaching up to protect their heads as they turned back slightly to the building to see what happened. All they saw though was firefighters racing back and forth with large tubes spraying water upwards to the flames that'd now taken over even more of the building.

"Holy shit! What the hell was that?!" Michael exclaimed rather redundantly, staring warily up at the hotel. Joshua on the other hand, was more concerned with the man they had just turned away from in their panic, but upon turning back, he saw the man was gone, and in his place, hanging from the light post, and still swinging back and forth from the motion of being dropped down, was a small brown paper package tied up with string.

"He's gone." He announced, capturing his partner's startled attention.

"Shit. He just up and disappeared, didn't he? I'm guessing the box is the evidence he had for us and hopefully not a bomb." The man sighed tiredly, before turning to him. "You heard what he said though right? He's the fucking Red Skull. They were right."

Joshua didn't look back his partner; his eyes still studying the package, though his brain was elsewhere. He knew what Mr. E had said. It sounded like he'd started to say Red Skull.

But something didn't feel right. Joshua could've sworn the second word their mystery man had started to say didn't start with a 's'. But he had no proof, and he knew there was no use arguing it with his partner. So he stayed silent, helped his partner get the package down, turned it into the station, and went home, mind still whirling on and on about what this could mean.


	10. Chapter 10: Iron Man Steps In

A/N: Okay, first off, thank all of you for being patient with me, my life has gotten crazy like a sudden tornado on the fourth of july with a heavy down pour of felines, possibly even on pogo sticks, and so this chapter isn't as long as I wanted it to be, but as my brother reminded me it is nice to know the people whose story you're following are, in fact, alive, and me being me I didn't want to just say 'hey! I alive! Don't murder me!' without giving you something, that wouldn't be fair. So I'm giving you what's finished of this chapter and answering a very commonly asked question, and then asking you to leave me more questions you may have about anything to answer for next time. So the most commonly asked question I've gotten is this, (this one in Particular is courtesy of my lovely reviewer Echoes 01): "...Looking forward to the Avengers coming in but wondering where the street level marvel heroes are. Have Spider-Man, Daredevil, Luke Cage, etc not started working yet or are they just in different parts of the city and Jason hasn't run into them yet? I would love to see Red Hood interact with Daredevil or the Punisher. That would be epic :)"

And this is my very long and semi-important to your understanding of when this story takes place, reply:

Answers to your questions: Well, at least answers to your questions without spoiling everything anyway. So the Avenger's will be coming in next(THIS) chapter and we will be seeing a good deal with that, but as for the street level heroes, as of when this story is set, they either haven't become heroes yet, or are JUST starting out and their names haven't really gotten around yet. From my knowledge, Daredevil started out as a hero in the TV show soon after the first Avengers movie, so at this point he's either not quite Daredevil, or hasn't been out much as Daredevil yet, (I didn't want to mess with all the complications that come with the movies after the first Avengers. For the story I'm writing here I needed the team working together without too much hassle, which the problems set up by the second Avengers movie and the ones afterward would mess up. So this story is set between the first Avengers movie and the later ones.) and since the rest of the Defenders timeline takes place after the first season of Daredevil, they probably aren't around yet. This is not to say that they might not show up. I definitely think they'd be fun to play with and I'd love to see how they'd interact with the universe I've created for this story, it's just as of yet, I don't know how they'd fit into the story or if they will at all. I'm going to try, I'd love to see it happen. As for Spidey. I think for when this is set he'd be the hardest to work in, especially if I'm working with the civil war/homecoming version. The timeline just doesn't really add up if I do try to use that. Given that though, I might just push Peter becoming Spider Man forward in the timeline and change whatever I need to to make that work, if I can get him to pop in. As for the Punisher, if he does come in he and Jason will probably have their own little story arc just for them. I definitely see the two of them possibly working together but it would definitely have its conflicts (the reason behind WHY they have the ideology they have is quite different. I can totally see Frank Castle seeing the reasoning behind Jason's ideology as selfish at first if he ever heard the story of why Jason does what he does. (I do think it kind of was at first when Jason first became Red Hood. He killed a lot of people going after Joker, and getting to Batman he almost kills some of the Batfam. Later, as he got some of his sanity back, I think that changed to him thinking he's cleaning up the city for the good of others like he had been in the city, and legitimately being the case instead of the excuse for his actions. Which the later reason Frank would totally be behind.) There's a lot of discussion to be had though about what they'd think of each other. All of which would be interesting to write, it's just as of yet, again, I'm not sure how he'd fit in. Actually, if I include any of them, I would want them to have their own little arc's with Red Hood.

So yes, I'd love to have the others, and I've had more than one suggestion for Jason to meet Deadpool as well, which could be fun, if a bit crazy, (well, very crazy, it's Deadpool for crying out loud) I just don't know how they'll fit in. Right now I have an overarching story going between Jason and the Avengers and a lot of the story so far has been set up for that, and other possible future adventures with other marvel characters, but my plan is basically a rough sketch right now. Each chapter get's planned out and written according to what makes the most sense for how the characters would react to events of the last chapter, as sometimes changes get made big time when you're writing them then what you originally planned. Dialogue and characters take on a life of their own, and sometimes even create themselves, and so I leave a lot of room for those changes to happen. I know where I'm going and the problems Jason will face, I'm just not sure how I'll have events lead Jason to meeting the street level heroes in a way that makes sense fit in with the rest of the over arching plan."

~x~

Hopefully, this answered your questions! If you have more, please ask them! I'd love to hear them, as honestly the ideas these conversations spring up often have an effect on the plot! When I first started this story, I never really thought about having the street level heroes seriously come in, but your question, along with others about it, have caused me to really consider it and what those conversations and adventures might look like if they do get written. Which usually leads to at some of those ideas being incorporated. So please review dear readers!

And with that, on with the story!

* * *

Chapter 10: Iron Man Steps in

Tony Stark was many, many things. Genius, playboy, philanthropist, yes. Reckless, arrogant, rebellious? Also yes. But there was also one other thing Tony Stark definitely was: infinitely curious.

Now, you might say that makes a lot of sense, Tony was a scientist and an engineer, and they had to be curious to do their job. But Tony was not only curious of anything and everything concerning his civilian career, Tony also got caught up in many other things as well; like the cryptic activities of the mysterious agency known as SHIELD. It was because of this curiosity he knew that two months ago their headquarters on the ground had been broken into, though no one could tell exactly what files the thief took, and even more curious, they had yet to find any evidence of who the thief was, a rarity with this agency in particular.

It was also because of this inquisitiveness that Tony was now hacking local police stations to see if there were any other possible cases of their enigmatic thief running gigs elsewhere in the city besides SHIELD. Strangely for him, as good as Tony was, he could find nothing on the thief. No matching faces. No similar crimes. Nothing. But he did find a rather unusual report in his search for the thief, almost hidden away under all the other droning, boring, everyday reports of speeding, parking tickets, common thefts, etc. Something very, very different. A report that could mean Steve Rogers wasn't the only survivor of that plane crash. And wasn't that a strange, semi-disturbing thought? Red Skull in the modern world; what havoc would that bring? Nothing good, Tony was sure.

Determined to find more on this discovery, Tony looked into where the officers had interacted with Skull, hoping to see what happened for himself. Maybe they were just ridiculously superstitious and decided that some random bloke wearing a red mask and committing a felony just _had_ to be the Red Skull? It could be nothing! The police had been wrong before. Like that time they pulled him over for drunk driving! He hadn't actually been drunk at all! Just, well, maybe not _entirely_ sober...

But, maybe it wasn't Red Skull after all. Tony would just check security tapes from the area just to be sure. Weirder shit had happened after all. But even as Tony begun searching around, he started to wonder if he should bring Steve in to look at this with him before he did anything else. If anybody had the right to be in on this, Cap had the right to know if his old villain was back in the game. Hell! Cap had practically given his life to stop the guy! Of course he had a right to know!

...Still, Tony supposed if it wasn't actually Red Skull there was no need to give the old coot a false alarm. Plus his own curiosity was burning away at him with the power of a neutron bomb, and he found he couldn't bring himself to turn away from the evidence in front of him long enough to call Steve down and actually wait for him to get here. Besides, if it really was anything interesting he'd call Steve right up, tell him everything he knew, and if it _was_ nothing Cap wouldn't have to waste his time! Or at least that's what Tony was trying to convince himself. And so Tony began looking through the videos with a small weight of guilt resting in the pit of his stomach that no amount of justifications could avoid.

What he saw, he wasn't sure what to think of. The man they were obviously calling Red Skull looked different than all the pictures Tony had seen in school: the jacket, the red bat on his chest, the utility belt wrapping around the man's waist, all of it looked too modern for a man from the 40's, and strange for the man besides; but there was no mistaking that face looked scarily similar to all the old black and white photos they had of Red Skull underneath his human guise. Tony supposes he could've just adapted to modern society faster than Cap did, or maybe he'd been there longer than they'd realized to get used to it. Stay on top of the times, so to speak. That and somehow gotten a weird obsession with bats if he was wearing one on his chest like that.

Either way, Tony didn't think there was any mistaking just who this was, but now Tony was concerned over what the villain had been up to here, what could he have done? And so instead of getting Steve like he'd told himself he would, Tony lost himself going over the security tapes.

Tony watched as the man broke into the building, and he watched through windowed walls, through gaps in the fabric of blackout curtains, through the chips of black window paint, as minutes later he single handedly took down all the men in the lobby. He watched as he methodically cleaned every floor, and he watched as he didn't kill a single one of them. He watched as Skull interrogated one of the gang's leaders, and he watched as he went to the next room and broke in on the gang's last two leaders beating up some kids, and he watched as Skull broke the kids out.

But why the hell would a villain doing this? A mass murderer with no remorse, no pity, and more than a little bit of prejudice at that? Was he trying to make it look like he was the good guy here? 'Cause there was no way in hell that was going to work, everyone knew who he really was, so what was he playing at? What did he think he could possibly get out of this? ' _And what on earth was he going to do with those kids?!'_ Tony worried jaw clenched as he watched the group of kids and Red Skull pause at an empty street corner. It was obvious they were saying something, but the rotating security camera he'd hacked into lacked audio and Tony didn't read lips. He had a program for that.

"Hey JARVIS, bring up program 9.75."

"Already done sir," JARVIS' disembodied voice rang out as text started rolling in the corner of Tony's holographic screen.

' " _...did it. We actually did it"_ ' The girl spoke, and then there was nothing. Red Skull had his back to the camera; there was no way for even Tony's spectacularly genius program to make out his reply. And it was so very maddening to Tony to have answers so enticingly close, and yet just outside his reach.

" _You kept your word. That's the first time an adult actually done that with me. Guess I won't be bringing down Hell on you then."_ The girl spoke again, and yet again, Skulls reply was lost. Despite that though, Tony couldn't stop himself from thinking the girl must be brave to talk to Red Skull like that. That or very, very, stupid.

" _And a last."_ She answered to whatever it was Skull had said, which only served to grow Tony's unsated curiosity. What had Skull said to her? What on earth did she mean by that? ' **And a last'**? But then, as Skull replied with inaudible words, he handed her something, though it was too hidden by the man's bulk to really see what it had been, and the girl took it and nodded to the villain before pocketing it.

" _Okay. I'll trust you for now. But you have to give me something to work with first."_ The girl stated, and again Tony wondered what the man could possibly have said to get the kid trust him, but didn't have time to chase the thought as the man obviously gave the affirmative and the girl started speaking again.

" _What's your name? Your real name, I mean. I know guys like you don't like to give it out all too much."_ And now that was strange, Red Skull's name was in history textbooks; anyone who went to school and had a basic history class on world war two would know that Red Skull's real name was Johann Shmidt. What was the point in asking? Had these kids never gone to school? Or was something else going on?' But just as it was getting good, Skull lifting his hands to do something, the camera slowly, agonizingly, turned away.

"No no No! Come on! Turn back!" Tony yelled in vain.

"Sir, I do believe you are speaking to an inanimate object, one without any artificial intelligence at that. It is illogical to believe that it would do as you order." JARVIS interrupted, and for an AI, he sounded far too amused for Tony to be happy.

"Yeah, well. It should." Tony grumbled while hacking any other cameras that might've captured what happened in the few seconds that the camera decided to be an ass as he waited for the damn thing to turn back. To his dismay, Skull was standing in the one blind spot; _**The one blind spot!**_ He had on the whole damn _street!_

"Oh come on! Really?!" Tony yelled at his computers before he was distracted as the first camera slowly turned back. Just in time to see Red Skull and the kids splitting up.

"Fucking hell! I missed it!" Tony whined, rocking back in his chair in disappointment.

"If I may suggest sir, though you might not have footage of what you are looking for, there were witnesses to it. It should be fairly easy for one such as yourself to find the children in the footage."

"Damn, you're right." Tony muttered to himself as he immediately straightened and got to work, fingers moving like lightning flying across the hovering keyboard in front of him.

"Right, okay, they're at the Carten's Children House off of Corona avenue and 108th. JARVIS, you know what to do. Let's go check it out." Tony said, launching himself up and to the door.

"Of course sir. Should I inform Mr. Rogers of this development?" And that one line froze Tony in place, one foot already out the door, hesitating in his indecision.

"... No, not yet. I want to tell Steve personally. Try to lay him down gently, you know? I mean, I know I'm shit at it, but Rogers deserves that much. Wonder if maybe I can get Pepper to do it, she's always been better with that," Tony muttered the last line to himself, even though he already knew he'd never ask her to. That wouldn't be fair to her or Steve, and while Tony might be an asshole, he wasn't 100% a dick either. "But I want to talk with those kids first, make sure they're alright, if Skull did something to them we need to check up on them immediately."

"Yes sir. Should I resolve to remind you as such as soon as you return?"

"Sounds good." Tony agreed, already continuing out the door.


	11. Chapter 11: Meetings

A/N:This was a long time coming, and still shorter than I would've liked, I'm sorry guys! Tony decided to give me a hard time and tried to be exceedingly difficult to write. I've rewritten this chapter over half a dozen times, and I'm still not sure if I'm 100% happy with it, but at this point, I'm moving on. On the bright side, next chapter Jason and Tony will definitely be meeting! And possibly a few other Avengers depending on what happens. We'll see. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this and tell me what you think!

* * *

Chapter 11: Meetings

When Tony showed up to the orphanage, it took minimal convincing to see the kids, though it was with the stipulation that one of the staff would be in there with him. Once they'd heard there might be a danger to the little munchkins, they'd quickly agreed. Looking around the place himself as he waited for the man he'd been speaking with to fetch the kids, Tony immediately decided he'd be donating a few million soon. It was obvious the place was well cared for and the staff and their volunteers were doing their best, everything was in relatively good repair and as clean as it could get with as many kids as lived there, but their best was still not very good.

Walking in he saw on the left a few bookshelves with books of various different reading levels put up for the kids, but it was clear the books had been well loved, and were rather falling apart. There were dents in the walls from kids speeding along and crashing into them, and the edges of the short false wood table in the den was fraying at the corners with wear. The various chairs and couches were beat up and lumpy from kids bouncing onto them, and the carpet, though it was picked up and vacuumed, had stains here and there from kids being the messy little trolls they were and was matted so much it was quite unrepairable. A toy box sat in the corner of the room looking like an explosion had taken place with how the toys had been left all around it, and the box itself had obviously been broken at some point and repaired with a good deal of duct tape, but the kids didn't seem to mind it at all. There were five around the room reading, playing with the toys or running around each other playing some version of tag.

Luckily, before the kids could run into him and drag him into their game the man came back with four kids following hesitantly behind him, the youngest maybe seven, and the eldest about fourteen.

"You kids Matt & Jamie Pena, Julian Sahirul, and Cleo Emonts?" Tony asked, though he already recognized them from the video. The kids passed a wary look between them before the one JARVIS had identified as Julian Sahirul stepped forward.

"What do you want?"

It was then that Tony realized he had no idea how to talk to kids. How do you approach a kid and say 'Hey the guy that saved you the other day? Actually a major villain! So I really need you to give me all the information on your knight in not so shining armor so I can arrest them!'. Yeah. Like that would go over well. But how else can he tell the kids to stay away from the guy? Keep the safe away from the evil psycho? Damn, this was too difficult! Give him his 'bots any day thank you very much! Mini-humans were just too complex and confusing, and never, ever, straight forward. Ever. He remembered that much from his days as a little brat himself. Why were they trusting him with talking with these kids again? Oh yeah, cause they're in danger. Right.

Still, it was a breath of fresh air seeing them, being able to see that though the kids looked worn, and very wary of everything, they looked healthy. Skull hadn't hurt them. Not yet at least.

"Err, okay tiny tots, I got some questions for you about somethings that went down the other day. The guy that saved you? Bright Red, skull-like face? I need to find him."

"Are you gonna make him an Avenger?!" The smallest little monkey said, bouncing on his toes excitedly at the idea, though the others still had varying degrees of suspicion painted across their faces.

"Ah, well, here's the thing- pretty sure the guy who saved you, well, he might've, uh, gotten himself into some trouble, and he might get you hurt the next time you see him. I need to know where he is right now so we can resolve it." They gave him a dubious look- honestly, you'd think he was one of the world's dumbest instead of one of the world's greatest minds with the looks they were giving him.

"Okay dufus, that's where you're wrong." The girl started up, though one of the boys hissed at her at the 'dufus' bit, elbowing her in the side. "Shush it Matt!" She shoved back, "I mean it! He's being a dufus and you know it! Red saved our fucking lives and now you're tellin' us that he's gonna get us hurt the next time he sees us? Red wouldn't get us hurt like that. He ain't a moron! That's the kinda shit you Avenger types pull, putting people in harm's way and not protecting them! Your tower is a fucking bigass target in the middle of the city and you have people in there that have no business superheroing, they're just normal people! What kinda protections do they have, huh? If you're going to go after Red for putting us in danger you need to take a look at yourself first ya hypocrite!" The man who had brought the kids over and stayed to make sure Tony didn't try anything untoward cringed a little at the girls language, but it seemed he wouldn't interfere, content to let them talk it out.

"Look, kid, I know the man saved you, and I don't doubt that he would try his best to keep you from harm's way-" Tony cringed internally for having to say that-there was no way Red Skull was in this for the good of the kids-but if it convinced them to talk to him it'd be worth it, "but that doesn't mean you won't get hurt around him. Look, I'm trying to help here. The tower's not perfect I'll admit, we're working on fixing that, but the doesn't change the fact that the man is a danger to you, an immediate one, not just a possible danger like the tower is. I'm just trying to keep you kiddos safe. I don't want anyone getting hurt but those doing the hurting, but I need you to work with me here." Tony could tell the kids weren't very happy about it, but he'd mollified them some.

"So you're going to help him then? Make sure whatever trouble he's in doesn't get to us?" The older brother asked, and Tony nodded, it was an Obi-Wan -ish way of putting things, but oh well. He would make sure the trouble that was Red Skull wouldn't get to hurt these kids, and help Red Skull receive punishment for his crimes, so in a way he was doing exactly what the kid was asking him. In a way, anyway.

"Yes! Now you're getting it." The kids looked at each other, as they tried to come to a decision, before the older brother spoke up again.

"You promise to help him, promise, cross your heart, hope to die, promise, and I'll get him to meet with you and you can help." A burst of alarm shot through Tony at those words, if Skull was still in contact with these kids Iron Man coming to them could get them killed, especially if the kid then tried to lead Skull to superheros who would be trying to take him down.

"He's in contact with you?!" The kids again looked at him warily.

"Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. You don't need to worry about that, he's not bringing any trouble here." The other older boy said, and Tony thought about that for a minute. It was clear that even if the kids knew where Skull was they wouldn't tell him the location, and this maybe the only way to find him. If Skull was in contact with the kids anyway then they were already in danger, and would be just for talking with him. Still, the chances of Red Skull actually showing up if he did agreed to the kids deal were low, he'd send minions before he went himself, especially if he knew who the meeting was with, but it was entirely possible they could get his location and plans from any minions the guy sent. No matter what the kids were in danger, and Tony would have to see about putting a buttload of security around this building to keep the kids safe, but maybe if he accepted they would have a chance of catching Skull.

"Okay kid, you got a deal. Set up that meeting."

"And you promise to help him?" The youngest boy asked him pleadingly, puppy dog eyes wide and open for business. Damn. It was hard not to feel guilty looking at that face, but-

"Stick a needle in my eye, kid. I promise. " It was, at least, a version of the truth. He was helping Skull. Helping him see the evils he's done, helping to make him pay for those evils. He'd be helping. The kids seemed to believe him at least.

"Good." The girl nodded firmly. "I'll talk to Red, then." Tony really hoped he was making the right decision here, because if he wasn't, then, well. Fuck. This could be very, very bad. "You got a way for us to tell ya where he'll meet you?"

"I'll give you a phone number to call, how 'bout that?" She shrugged.

"I suppose that works."


	12. Chapter 12: That Could've Been Worse

A/N: Happy Holidays everybody! I'm a bit late for Christmas, but I still have a gift for all of y'all, so here you go! Enjoy!

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Chapter 12: That Could've Been Worse

When Jason got a call from the kids he'd only just asked to trust him a few days ago he, well. Panicked. He was loading up with enough weapons to make an army general jealous, and, hell, enough to take down a full fucking battalion, tanks and everything, if need be, before the third ring of the phone because if _his_ phone was ringing—the phone of a man who didn't _exist_ in this whole fucking _universe_ —then it could only be those kids and the only reason he could think of for them to call him was if something very, _very,_ bad had happened. So yes, there was a bit of panic involved when he answered that phone call. And so you could see how it was very much unexpected when they told him Tony fucking Stark was looking for him and wanted to talk.

Like, _what?_ How did _that_ happen? Sure, he took down a few crime bosses here and there, as well as a couple gangs, more than a couple drug dealers, and he'd stopped a few dozen of petty crimes on his now nightly patrols, (what else did he have to do? Every door that might lead to a way home was a dead end so really nightly patrols were way to alleviate boredom as much as everything else), but really, even the local police force hadn't been kicking up _that_ big a fuss about him. They had a warrant out for his arrest, sure, but that happened to every vigilante. He was pretty sure even Superman had had a warrant out at _some_ point, and everyone and their dog was in love with the man. So really, this was totally uncalled for.

Plus, Jason really didn't care to meet any of this world's heroes, besides cussing them out for focusing purely on the bigger picture and not helping the people in their own city, he didn't even want to speak a word to them. He in no way wanted to be sucked into any of their bullshit, which he knew for a fact would happen if they met. Every superhero or super group he'd ever known did it. They were possessive as hell to things they had no claim to, like Batman to 'his' city, and if they thought you were interfering they would get _involved._ And there was always at least five feet of bullshit to wade through every single damn time _that_ happened. So yeah, he could very happily do without that.

But, it was the kids calling, and if they'd gone to fucking kids to get at him for whatever infraction their egos thought he'd made, well. That would need to be dealt with.

So instead of just ignoring that one of the Avengers wanted to meet up, he told the kids he'd meet with the Iron Moron in one of the emptier parts of town in two days. He didn't want any civilians getting hurt if the new Narcissist (the man had built a monument to himself, if that wasn't exactly in character with Echo's unrequited love Jason didn't know what was,) got uppity with him.

Waiting for the meeting wouldn't be fun, Jason always favored getting things like this out of the way, but time to prepare could go a long way. Mapping out escape routes if things went to shit for example, or double-checking the kids were safe given this new turn of events, etc. etc. Extra time to plan would be welcomed, even if Jason was hoping for the best with this little meet-and-greet.

~x~

The two days passed both as slowly as a slothful snail and as quickly as a speedster who just drank a full pack of Monster's. So either way not very pleasant. But as it was, Jason now stood in an open warehouse, leaning arms crossed against one of the building's metal walls counting and tracing out his various escape routes mentally as he waited for the other man to arrive. Honestly, it was a bit too much like counting sheep; Jason was about to pull out a couple of his knives and begin some juggling tricks Dick had taught him once upon a time if he had to wait here any longer, that would certainly spice things up a little.

Fortunately, just as he was about to unstrap his favorites, Black Sabbath filled his ears and Iron Man flew in through the warehouses open doors directly in front of Jason and landed with a loud thud. Finally, the wait was over.

"Took ya long enough, Tin Can. For someone who called this meeting you sure took your sweet ass time." Jason grumbled, and then took a second to study the man in front of him. It was obvious for all Stark's arrogance and talk the man was truly a genius. The suit was a technical marvel, though Jason had seen similar tech in his own world, (Red Tornado for one, though he was a android rather than a man, had similarities to this tech), Stark was the first in this world to create tech like this and that deserved some credit. "So you're Iron Man,"

"So _you_ got rid of the old accent. Picked up a new one, nice. I never figured you for a Jersey* kind of guy. It does make you sound less evil, so good choice on that one at least. I see you still kept your pretty face though." The mechanical voice issued from the armor that distinctly reminded Jason of extremely reckless Gryffindors, for whatever reason. Maybe it was just the bright fucking red and gold.

"You've never met me before Buckethead, how would you know?" Jason had to ask, incredulous at the man's implications.

"You've met Cap, and he tells some pretty good stories, Calamari." Stark replied accusingly, though that just confused Jason all the more. Calamari? Cap? What the hell was going on here?

"I've never met any of ya, C3PO. What are you on about?"

"Oh so you're denying it then? What's your story this time Red? Oh I'll save a few people, earn the public's trust, and then fuck them over? I know who you've killed. You can't fool me."

"My story?! I'm just trying to protect the city, YOUR city might I add, that you have been, and still are, neglecting for the glory of the ' _bigger picture'_! Not once have I seen you, or any of your group, do anything more than throw money at the problems the people of this city suffer through from your high tower. You've done nothing to stop organized crime in this city, nothing to stop thieves, rapists, drug dealers, or abusers. At best you've thrown a few _televised_ fundraisers to help the homeless, maybe some cancer patients, and rebuild from your alien invasion, but never done in a way that wasn't for _publicity_! I don't know what you think you know about me, or where you got your information, but I am not going to turn my back to these people like you have! So fuck off!"

"Oh, so now I'm the villain here?! You're the psycho Nazi who tried to bomb this very city and hundreds more, and now you're on about this self-righteous crap!?" Jason jerked back, at the unexpected accusation.

"What the fuck?! No! I've never done that! Who the fuck do you think I am? I've never done anything even close to that!"

Iron man started to snap back, but then paused before he finished his first word, almost like he was listening to something.

"You're either a really good liar or you truly believe you aren't Red Skull." Red Skull? Jason tried to search his memory of the name. It wasn't really familiar, but that was to be expected, this wasn't his world-there was no way he was going to know all of its history. It did however sound like something Jason had read recently… Maybe in SHIELD's files then? Jason would have to look up the name later.

"Red Skull? Yeah, no. I'm not him. I go by Red Hood."

"Hood? Are you saying the red is removable then? Why don't you prove it. I'm not entirely convinced you aren't a really good actor." Stark dared, his voice coming out a flat disbelieving tone, only enhanced by the suits mechanized speakers.

See, things like this were why Jason wore a domino mask beneath his helmet. The helmet was good for protection, intimidation, and cultivating a identity in the superhero world, but sometimes he needed to be a bit more personable. Whether for comforting a victim, getting them calm and willing to trust someone by seeing a human face under the hood, or just communicating with allies without compromising his real identity. Either way, Jason was glad he was able to just whip off the helmet. The lack of protection while it was off was worth it for not having a entire super group after him because of a moronically mistaken identity.

"See, completely normal human, I'm not whoever this Red Skull guy is, you got it wrong."

"Aren't you a little young to be doing this?" A new, feminine voice suddenly said, melting out of the shadows of the warehouse. Her red hair flashed in the light streaming through the open warehouse doors as she walked over to stand at Stark's side, and it was easy to make the connection to the picture Jason had seen in the SHIELD files. This was the infamous Black Widow.

Now Jason wasn't too surprised by this. Tony Stark was a certifiable genius, but it was pretty clear he wasn't the best with people. It didn't make tactical sense to send him in alone to evaluate a newcomer, so sending in someone like Black Widow to watch from the shadows while Stark distracts said newcomer with his flashiness and arrogance just was to be expected. Her stealth however, was somewhat surprising. Jason knew she was considered one of the best in this world, but then the whole damn world also seemed to know who she was, which had to be one of the biggest failings Jason had ever heard of when it came to someone who was a spy. Assassin. Whatever she was. It was usually a given that someone on her career path should not have anyone who knows who they truly are or what exactly they've done, much less the whole damn world. How that could not be the case in this world as well seemed unfathomable. Still, if Jason wasn't a Bat, who not only had training from the big man himself, but also directly from the League of Assassins, then he would never have known she, nor her archer partner, (who was still hiding, though he was clearly not as good as Widow,) were even there.

"I've been doing this for seven years, so. No." Jason replied.

"Seven _years?_! Come on, that's a lie and you know it. You can't be over twenty!" Widow's partner spoke up as he sat perched on one of the warehouse's roof supports. This was Hawkeye then, this universes version of Green Arrow.

"How many members of your team did you bring to this little meeting Tin Can? Should I expect Big Green as well? Or perhaps the walking L'Oreal commercial? Or maybe the propaganda piece to end all propaganda pieces himself? Mr. American way?"

"It's just us. No one else. But really, how old are you? Cause Hawkeye's right you can't be too old, and there's no way you've been doing this for seven years if you have a natural human age cycle, and I'm betting you are human. If you were Asgardian you wouldn't sound Jersey. That would mean you were what, eleven, twelve when you started? Yeah, no. That's bullshit." Stark said, lifting the faceplate of his suit now that he knew Jason was really who he said he was.

"Does it really matter? I've been doing this for seven years. That's all you need to know." Jason said, putting his helmet back on now that he'd made his point. He didn't care for being stared at. He had enough of it as Bruce's ward.

"It could matter. No one here supports child soldiers, if you started that young there could be others who need help. Need out. You don't start that young without someone introducing you to it." Widow said, and something about how she said it, or maybe how she was standing, made it feel as if that sentence had some deeper meaning for her. Which would make sense if she went through something like League training; the League started young, and violently.

"There's no one else on this Earth." And that was the truth, even if it wasn't the whole story. Widow narrowed her eyes at him for that one, but stayed quiet.

"And is that why you found those kids? To drag them into your vigilantism?"

"Hell no! The only reason I'm in any sort of contact with the kids is because they were in trouble, which if you did your job, you already would've dealt with!"

"You really don't like us, do you kid?" Hawkeye observed, like it was anything new.

"You're not exactly on my good list, no." Hawkeye shrugged at that.

"You can't win 'em all."

"Well," Stark interrupted, "as nice it is that we've affirmed you're not an evil psycho Nazi determined to take over the world, we still can't condone what you're doing."

"What, helping make New York safer?"

"Vigilantism is illegal for a reason kid. You're going to get yourself into trouble at best and killed at worst. We can't let you keep doing this."

"Yeah, been there, done that, I have the scars to show for it. I already beat the reaper once. I can personally tell you waking up six feet under when you should really be dead is very unpleasant. That is really not going to stop me." Hawkeye rocked back on the rafter where he was sitting at that pronouncement, Widow's face grew stormier than ever, and Gryffindork's eyebrows shot up with shock. Well that seemed to take them all back a little.

"For a dead guy you're looking remarkably healthy." Widow deadpanned.

"What can I say, I'm the hottest zombie you'll ever meet." Jason snarked right back, though he was more tensed for fight or flight than ever. He wasn't looking for a fight here, (and with three against one if a fight started Jason was pretty sure he would lose,) but if they chose to try to apprehend him he wasn't going to just stand around and let them.

"Look, let's not make this more difficult than it has to be," The Tin Can said after a strained moment of silence. "Just come in with us. If you're still stuck on this vigilante thing, then you can look into joining the police, or becoming a SHIELD agent, or something."

"Like they're much better. Have you actually looked at some of the crap SHIELD's done? The organization that, I don't know, you fucking work for? Because it is shady as shit! If you 'can't condone' what I'm doing, then how can you stand working for them?!"

"I don't think you know what you're talking about kid."

"Like hell I don't. Have you actually looked at all their files? Project Insight for example? Because if you haven't found that one, be aware they are fucked the hell up, and that project should never have been conceived."

"And how do you know about this project exactly?" Widow asked with faked nonchalant.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Yes, that's kind of why she asked, kid." Stark snapped in reply.

"You're a perfectly intelligent group, you can figure it out, I'm sure. Now! If we're done here, I'll just take my leave!" Jason said, and with that, he bolted. Flipping up on top of the cargo boxes lining the warehouses walls, and he ran and leapt across them to the window he'd purposely left open for this exact purpose, dodging Hawkeye's arrows and Widow's bullets the whole way, while the sound of Stark's repulsors echoed in his ears. Reaching the window, Hood leapt through, firing his grappling hook as he cleared its frame.

Now for the ultimate game of keep away.


End file.
